Jewett sent many letters that lack dates. Some may be
dated from internal evidence, but many cannot be assigned even
approximate dates, given our current state of knowledge.
However, as this archive of transcriptions grows, new
information may help to date more of these letters and, then, to
place them in or close to their proper sequence. The site
manager always welcomes ideas and information.

SOJ to an unknown recipient, possibly Mary Rice Jewett

Monday night

[ After 1871 ]

…….…I didnt know which room she wanted them for. This day
has been devoted to friendship. I went to find Susy Ward in
Fullton St., but she was in Washington and I had a few pleasant
minutes with Dr. Ward,* and then had to come back to lunch for I
was kept so late by my story man before I could start.

Notes

The line of points presumably indicates an omission from the
manuscript.

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in the
Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Undated Letters, Folder
75, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more
information about the individual transcription, contact the Maine
Women Writers Collection. Notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Georgina Halliburton to SOJ

[ Probably in the 1870s ]

Dear Sarah

I have only time to write [ a ?
] line -- may I expect all my hopes that you will come &
pass Christmas. If I can I shall pass Friday
with [ Edith?] {.}* [We ? ]
will come home together. I trust nothing will
prevent.

Georgie

Notes

1870s: This guess at a date is supported only by the
fact that the other letters between Jewett and Halliburton
in the Columbia collection date from this decade.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Columbia University
(New York) Library in Special Collections, Jewett.
Transcription from a microfilm copy and annotation by Terry
Heller, Coe College.

Georgina West Graves Perryto SOJ

[ After 1882 ]*

[ Letterhead designed as a medallion
featuring the letter "G." The text begins to the
right of the letterhead. ]

Dear Sarah

I am so glad. What a lovely
time you must be having. and [ so it appears ] could
you stop here Saturday & pass Sunday{?} I want to
see you so much. Do come if it is a possible
thing. I have so much to talk over, and you will have

[ Page 2 ]

a great deal to tell me{.} I am so glad to be at home again.

How strange & nice it seems to
address this letter. How can you return on Sat. much
as I want you{?} I advise you to stay until Monday.

Yours with love
Georgina.

Notes

1870s: With this letter is an envelope postmarked
from Portsmouth, NH and addressed to Jewett in care of Mr. Charles
Perry at the Hotel Kempton, on Berkely St. in Boston, MA.
The very faint cancellation may read "Nov 12."
Melissa Homestead of the University of
Nebraska, Lincoln, has identified Charles French Perry and his wife Georgiana West Graves: "Charles Perry was a
distant cousin of the Jewett sisters, on their mother's side."
Georgie Perry was a socially active resident of Cambridge,
MA in the 1890s.
This guess at a date is supported only by the
fact that the other letters between Jewett and Halliburton
in the Columbia collection date from this decade.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Columbia University
(New York) Library in Special Collections, Jewett.
Transcription from a microfilm copy and annotation by Terry
Heller, Coe College.SOJ probably to Mary Rice Jewett and Caroline Jewett Eastman*

Thursday afternoon
[Before 1878 or between 1892 and April 1897 ]

Dear Girls

……….It wasn't you being busy that was unnoticed, but you said that
it was a beautiful morning and we would go somewhere if I were
home, and I thought it was proper for you to go anyway, and I
afterward found that you did, so I laughed. But I always
think the fuller we can make our lives when we are apart the more
we have to give when we are together -- which has a didactic tone,
but you will please excuse. I think sometimes people who are
a great deal together get to be each one-legged when they are
apart -- and it is not useful to be one-legged.

Notes

Eastman: Jewett often writes to both of her sisters,
sometimes addressing them as "girls." That no other family
members are mentioned suggests that the letter comes from before
Caroline's marriage in 1878, but it may come from between the
deaths of her husband, Edward, in March 1892 and of Caroline in
April 1897.
The line of points presumably indicates an
omission from the manuscript.

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in the
Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Undated Letters, Folder
75, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more
information about the individual transcription, contact the Maine
Women Writers Collection. Notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Lilian Woodman Aldrich

South Berwick

Thursday [ 1880 - 1902 ]

Dear Lilian

Indeed I will pour the tea (and make every
body's too sweet!) with the greatest of pleasure.

Mary* thanks you so much for your kindness and
the invitation, and regrets she can't be there --

'Sadie': Sadie Martinot was a Jewett nickname with
the Aldriches, presumably after the American actress and singer,
Sarah/Sadie Martinot. See Correspondents.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library,
Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Thomas Bailey Aldrich Papers,
119 letters of Thomas Bailey and Lilian Woodman Aldrich,
1837-1926. MS Am 1429 (117). Transcribed and annotated by Terry
Heller, Coe College.
At the bottom left of page one, in another
hand, is a circled number: 2728.

SOJ to Lilian Woodman Aldrich

[ 1880 - 1896 ]

Dear Lilian

May I be a little late at your lunch?
because if you wont mind that I will accept with many thanks -- I
was not sure you had come home from New York until ^this morning
when^ we read Mr. Pierce's* name in a paper. I wish to hear
all about

[ Page 2 ]

your good times -----

I shall be glad to see Mifs Sprague* again --

Yours lovingly

"Sadie"*

Notes

1880 - 1896: This letter was almost certainly
composed after 1880 when Aldrich became editor at Atlantic,
definitely before Henry L. Pierce's death in 1896.

Mifs Sprague: While this can only be speculation, it
is possible this is Mary Aplin Sprague (1849-1939), author of An
Earnest Trifler (1880), a novel praised by William Dean
Howells.

Sadie: Sadie Martinot was a Jewett nickname with the
Aldriches, presumably after the American actress and singer,
Sarah/Sadie Martinot. See Correspondents.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library,
Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Thomas Baily Aldrich Papers,
119 letters of Thomas Bailey and Lilian Woodman Aldrich,
1837-1926. MS Am 1429 (117). Transcribed and annotated by Terry
Heller, Coe College.
At the bottom left of page one, in another
hand, is a circled number: 2722.

SOJ to Annie Adams Fields

[Winter 1881-1891]*

Thursday morning

My dear darling
I didn't read a word in the cars
and I must say that the way seemed long! It was a lovely brown
and gold winter afternoon with a cold clear yellow sunset and a
great wind that really rocked the car to and fro when the
trained stopped at those little stations on the marshes, but the
air was fresh and sweet and not too cold. I thought and thought
of you my darling and I had such a pain in my heart when I
thought that I had been cross only it wasn't with you. I felt so
baffled and helpless and as if I were doing wrong just when I
had meant to do right. [AF parentheses begins] I don't
mean that I am going to talk all about things in this letter [end
parentheses] -- for you know how it is with me better than
I do myself -- and know all that I could say, except that I must
tell you over again how dearly I love you and always have you in
my heart as I could never have anybody else. It is as much a
love born into me and grown into me as for Mary and Carrie and
Stubby, and what you are to me and have been in my life I can
never write or say. So when I have to say no to any wish of
yours or have to come away when you wish I would stay it hurts
me terribly. Do remember always how I think and think to [of?]
you if I am away ----
[AF parentheses begins] I
found Mary very cheerful thank Heaven, and enjoying her visit
from Stubby who still remains -- his father having taken the
little room while Carrie is ill. She is looking weak, but
getting on pretty well I should think and the grippe is taking
its course so that she ought to be better now in a day or two.
Mary has been busy between the two houses & [unreadable] has
been good.
I am going to the bank and so I must
end my letter. Good bye dear darling Fuff -- from

your Pinny [end parentheses]

Earlier transcriber notes.

A Letter from Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Fields
(nd - but written while Ned Eastman was still alive. AF has
marked a couple of passages with parentheses in pencil)

New notes

Winter. Theodore Eastman (Stubby) was born
on 4 August 1879. His father, Edwin Eastman, died 18
March 1892. Jewett's intimate letters to Fields begin in
1881.

The manuscript of this letter is at the University of New
England, Maine Women Writers Collection, Jewett
Collection correspondence corr058-soj-af-07.
New transcription by Terry &
Linda Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Annie Adams Fields [1881 or later]

"The country is beautiful to look at, but it is such clear cold
weather that you feel as if you were under a great block of
clear, shining ice, instead of air and sky. There is a grey
cloud-bank hanging over the sea all along the eastern horizon
and I think it is going to snow again, or rain. The wood-sleds
are creeping out of the woods and into the village, and the oxen
are like rocks from the pastures, or the tops of ledges, they
look so hard and tough and frosted over.

You are like my monkey and the
jack-in-the-box with your meetings. Some day you will get up a
big one that will scare you to death."

………….…What
an empty calico bag Vallie* is! She is devoured by self love
and self pity poor thing -- if anybody wants to see
where those things lead a person there she stands -- miserable
herself and making everybody miserable and bored. Only a
little while ago, I wrote of Discontent* and a note, that
was all no good. Well, we can see what turns up but cant
give her either Mr. Howell's letter or Mr. Aldriches* the latter
only signs his name to the letters I want to keep --
the rest are but notes with an initial. She wears me all out
only to think of her. Oh my “sister now blows a great whoo
like Fappy Rice”. I wonder if people stopped doing she would
turn round and try to please them.# My heart breaks for Mary
Harriet a wintering of her, I don't think it was worth a while.

#Now
she only tries to make you pleasedwithher -- Whoo!

Notes

after 1881 This letter must have been composed after
Jewett become friends with Thomas Bailey Aldrich and would have
substantial correspondence from him, which makes 1881 about the
earliest likely composition date. The line of points
presumably indicates an omission from the manuscript.

Vallie: The identity of this person is not yet known.
Assistance is welcome.

Discontent: Jewett may speak of her poem, "Discontent,"which appeared in St.
Nicholas (3:247), February 1876.

Fappy Rice: Presumably this is a nickname for a Rice
family relative, but this person has not been identified.
Assistance is welcome.

Mary Harriet: The identity of this person is not yet
known. Assistance is welcome.

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in the
Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Undated Letters, Folder
75, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more
information about the individual transcription, contact the Maine
Women Writers Collection. Notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ probably to Mary Rice Jewett

[ Saturday a.m. between 1880 and 1903]

I left my letter open thinking that I would send a few lines
this morning but I am catching a fair wind & tide to go to
H. & Mifflins so I shant stop to write.

Notes

between 1880 and 1903: The composition date of
this letter seems bounded between the formation of Houghton,
Mifflin and Company in 1880 and Jewett carriage accident in
September 1902.
Handwritten notes with this transcription
read: [Saturday a. m.]

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in the
Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Folder 72, Burton
Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more information about the
individual transcription, contact the Maine Women Writers
Collection. Preparation by Linda Heller. Notes by
Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Mary Bucklin Davenport Claflin

[ Begin letterhead ]

148. Charles Street.
Boston.

[ End letterhead ]

10 March*
[ After 1881 ]

Dear Mrs. Claflin

Thank you for remembering me, but I am going
away for a few days for a change, and I am afraid at any rate
should not be quite equal to the day at Wellesley --

Yours affectionately
Sarah O. Jewett

Notes

10 March: Sent from the home of Annie Fields, this
letter almost certainly was composed after the death of James T.
Fields in April of 1881.

The manuscript of this letter is provided by Rutherford B. Hayes
Presidential Center from the Governor William and Mary Claflin
Papers, GA-9, Box 4, Miscellaneous Folder J. On the back
side of the ms is this note: January 1960 -- from original in
Colby College Library, Waterville, Maine. Gift of the
Librarian. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.

After 1881: The earliest letter so far known
between Jewet and Whitman is dated April 3, 1882. Jewett
seems to have become close friends with Whitman at about the
same time she became friends with Annie Adams Fields.
A handwritten note on this transcription
reads: To: S W. The ellipses in the transcription indicate
that this is a selection from the manuscript.

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in the
Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Folder 72, Burton
Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more information about the
individual transcription, contact the Maine Women Writers
Collection. Preparation by Linda Heller. Notes by
Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Annie Adams Fields Wednesday evening. [1881 -
1890.]

Sometimes, the business part of
writing grows very noxious to me, and I wonder if in heaven our
best thoughts -- poet's thoughts, especially -- will not be
flowers, somehow, or some sort of beautiful live things that
stand about and grow, and don't have to be chaffed over and
bought and sold. It seems as bad as selling our fellow beings,
but being in this world everything must have a body, and a
material part, so covers and leaves and publishing generally
come under that head, and is another thing to make us wish to
fly away and be at rest!

[One day these verses came with the
usual bulletin of prose.]

Right here, where noisiest, narrowest is the street;
Where gaudy shops bedeck the crowded way;
Where idle newsboys in vindictive play
Dart to and fro with venturesome bare feet;
Here, where the bulletins from fort and fleet
Tell gaping readers what's amiss today,
Where sin bedizens, folly makes too gay,
And all are victims of their own conceit;
With these ephemeral insects of an hour
That war and flutter, as they downward float
In some pale sunbeam that the spring has brought,
Where this vain world is revelling in power;
I met great Emerson, serene, remote,*
Like one adventuring on seas of thought.

Notes

After 1880, perhaps around 1890: Jewett read
and referred to Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) throughout her career,
but she seems to have shown particular interest in reading him
late in the 1880s. After Carlyle's death, James Anthony
Froude published a several biographical volumes on Carlyle through
the 1880s. Jewett read these and, presumably, they
stimulated her interest in him.

great Emerson: Ralph Waldo Emerson
(1803-1882). Jewett included this poem in her unpublished
story, "Carlyle
in
America."

SOJ to Annie Adams FieldsMay. [After 1881
and before 1891, the date of Jewett's mother's death]

This is something I remember at this
moment in Voltaire. "He labored at every new work as if he had
his reputation still to make!" But oh, his letters! such grace,
such "gaieté de cœur"! They are really wonderful, are they not?
I only wish that there were more of them, and when I saw an
edition of his works for sale in Libbie's catalogue,* I was
tempted to bid. I don't dare propose to Mother the bringing in
of seventy volumes at one fell swoop! or it might be
ninety-seven in the best edition.

Good morning, dear. I begin to set my
day and to wonder if I can't spend a week from this coming
Sunday with you....

I hope you can get off to Manchester
by the fourth or fifth, as you planned, for I can only get a few
days there at first, for I find that the County Conference,*
dear to my heart, is coming on the eleventh, all the country
ministers and their wives and delightful delegates who never
appear to go anywhere else -- nice old country women.

Notes

in Voltaire. "He labored at every new work as if he had his
reputation still to make!": Voltaire, (François-Marie
Arouet, 1694-1778), according to the Grolier Multimedia
Encyclopedia, "was the most influential figure of the
French Enlightenment." He is best known, perhaps, for his
novella, Candide (1766). Information on the location of
the quotation would be welcome.

Libbie's catalogue: Charles F. Libbie & Co.,
auctioneers of Boston, regularly published catalogs of book
collections to be sold at auction. For example: Catalogue of
a portion of the libraries of the late Rev. Convers Francis,
and his sister, Lydia M. Child, of Cambridge, being a very
interesting collection of standard, rare and curious books ...
To be sold by auction ... May 12, 13 and 14, in the Library
salesroom, no. 608 Washington St. ... (1887).

County Conference: a meeting of representatives from local
churches. See above note for Manchester.

Thank you so much for the lovely piece of
pottery and for the chocolates which I have been "out of" very
long -- and also for five little baskets, though I dont know
whether I stole them from you or from the poor of Boston. 'Tal'*
may have told you that I grabbed them, but he may have thought I

[ Page 2 ]

was in fun! I hope you had a very pleasant Christmas -- and I hope
you are going to have twice as happy a new year as any old year
you can remember --

-- T. L.* thanks you too and loves you dearly,
and her conscience is clear of any sin about the little baskets

yours ever

[ Page 3 ]

Sadie.* And I am going to [ tag ? ] you to several
auctions when you come back from New York.

Notes

1882 - 1886: Probably this letter was written between
Christmas 1882, when Jewett began regular stays with Annie Fields
and 1886, when the Aldrich boys turned 18.

"Sadie": Sadie Martinot was a Jewett nickname with
the Aldriches, presumably after the American actress and singer,
Sarah/Sadie Martinot. See Correspondents.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library,
Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Thomas Bailey Aldrich Papers,
119 letters of Thomas Bailey and Lilian Woodman Aldrich,
1837-1926. MS Am 1429 (117). Transcribed and annotated by Terry
Heller, Coe College.
At the bottom left of page one, in another
hand, is a circled number: 2734.

SOJ to Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward

Thursday Morning

[ 1882 - 1888 ]*

[ Begin letterhead, printed in red ]

148 Charles Street.
Boston.

[ End letterhead ]

Dear Miss Phelps

Thank you very much, but I shall have to depend
upon A.F.'s* telling me the story of this afternoon. I shall
have to keep on with some [ writing corrected ] which the
weather and other primal causes have delayed!

Yours sincerely

S. O. Jewett

Notes

1882 - 1888: Jewett began corresponding from the home
of Annie Adams Fields in about 1882. Miss Phelps married in
1888. It is likely, therefore, that this letter was written
sometime during that period.

The manuscript of this letter is held in the Abernethy Collection;
Special Collections and Archives, Middlebury College Library,
Middlebury, VT. Jewett, Sarah Orne Letters, 1890, Box:
8, Folder: 14 Identifier: ABER MS MISC.

SOJ to Edward Henry Clement

148 Charles Street
Boston 27 February
[ 1882 - 1906 ]*

Dear Mr. Clements [So the name appears ]

Mrs Fields asks if you will be so kind
as to give the enclosed appeal early publication in the Transcript.

Yours very truly
S. O. Jewett

1882 - 1906: The appeal to which Jewett refers
is unknown. The date of this letter, therefore, so far is
limited only by the beginning of Jewett's close association with
Annie Adams Fields in 1882 and the end of Clement's tenure as
Editor in Chief of the Boston Transcript in 1906.

The manuscript of this letter is held in the Abernethy Collection;
Special Collections and Archives, Middlebury College Library,
Middlebury, VT, Jewett, Sarah Orne Letters to Edward Henry
Clement, 1896, Box 8, Folder 15.

SOJ to Abby Adeline Manning

Saturday 4th February
[ After 1882 ]

[ Begin letterhead ]

South Berwick.
Maine.

[ End Letterhead ]

Dear Miss Manning

I happened last night in talking with a
neighbor to hear of a nice person who wishes to get a place as
house-keeper -- and I thought it might be just possible that you
would like to hear of her -- She is said to be particularly
quiet and to have a gift at getting on with maids, and to be

[ Page 2 ]

companionable -- this being said by someone who doesn't have the
same ideas of companionship as you and I have! but still we must
look upon it from any point of view as a good trait --
Somehow the story sounded well about Mifs [ so spelled
] Meserve* and I immediately thought here might be somebody
who could help you out and set you free for more time

[ Page 3 ]

at your studio -- at any rate it will be something to get Miss
Meserve a place -- for if you dont need her you may know somebody
who does. I surely got this idea from what I was told last
night, that she was a reasonable person who would after a time
learn all ones ways of doing things and carry them on pretty well.

Which her

[ Page 4 ]

name it is Mifs A. F. Meserve,* 32 Howard St. Melrose Mass: and I
think she would come promptly to see any one if they sent and
asked. She has been for a long time with a family -- but
there are good reasons why she wishes to make a change.

Forgive if I seem to interfere with a friend's
affairs, but that is a foolish thing to say is n't it? I
just thought there may be a chance of this being a really good
person who would be a comfort to you

[ Up the left margin, then down the top
margin of page 1 ]

all three, & take part of the care off all three!*

Yours most affectionately

Sarah O. Jewett

Notes

After 1882: Paula Blanchard points out that Jewett
and Annie Fields stayed with Manning and Anne Whitney at their
summer home in Shelburne, VT, in 1889 (Sarah Orne Jewett, p.
215). This letter cannot follow from that visit, however, as
Jewett was with Fields in Florida in January 1890. However,
Manning and Whitney also were Back Bay neighbors, on Mt. Vernon
Street, so that Jewett could have become familiar with their
domestic needs at any time.A. F. Meserve: This person has not been identified.
The village of Melrose, MA is about 10 miles north of Boston.

all three: Presumably, the "three" would be Miss
Manning, her domestic partner, the sculptor Anne Whitney, and
their maid.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Small Library,
University of Virginia, Special Collections MSS 6218, Sarah Orne
Jewett Papers. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.

SOJ to William Hayes Ward

[ After 1882 ]*

Dear Mr. Ward

Will you please put this cheque to the account
of the sick doctor,* for whom you are doing such a great kindness
-- Please credit it on your list to S.J. The 'case' appeals to me very much
since my father was a [physician corrected] -- This
happens to be his birthday and

[Page 2]

so I thank you the more for giving me the opportunity.

Believe me, with great regard

Yours sincerely,

Sarah Orne Jewett

148 Charles Street*
Tuesday 24th

Notes

After 1882: The letter must have been composed after
Jewett began corresponding from the home of Annie Adams
Fields. No other limiting factor has yet been discovered.

sick doctor: The occasion for this donation has not
been identified. Assistance is welcome.

Street: Jewett has crossed the second "t" with a line
that extends across the rest of the page.

The manuscript of this letter is held in the
Abernethy Collection; Special Collections and Archives,
Middlebury College Library, Middlebury, Vt.
aberms.jewettso.xx2. It may be viewed here. Transcription and annotation
by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Olga von Radecki to Annie Adams Fields

[ After 1882 ]*

My dear Mrs. Fields,

Fearing to be unsuccessful in my attempt to see
you, I write to tell you how very very sorry I was, another
engagement interfered with my spending the evening with you in the
quiet neighborly fashion which I should have enjoyed extremely.

Please accept the little remembrance I brought
for you from home,* and believe me

Yours devotedly

Olga von Radecki

96 Charles Street, Monday.*

Notes

After 1882: Von Radecki moved from Latvia to Boston
in 1882 and began performing locally late that year.
from home: Olga von Radecki was born in Riga, Latvia,
and it may be that she has given Fields an item from Latvia.

96 Charles Street: Note that this address makes von
Radecki literally a near neighbor to Fields at the time she wrote
this letter.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of
Harvard University in Sarah Orne Jewett correspondence, MS1743,
Series: III. Letters to Annie (Adams) Fields: Letters to Annie
Fields from various correspondents.(320). Radecki, Olga von, fl.
1882. 1 letter; [n.d.].

Mary Rice Jewett to Louisa Dresel

Friday

[ Winter-Spring, between
1882 and 1889 ]

Dear Loulie:

[ Letterhead of MRJ superimposed within a circle.]
Sarah just called me to her and said "do
tell Loulie how amused I am at the idea of Rog's* being such a
savage protector of her"! It did amuse her very
much. Surely, She had several comfortable days in
succession but weather has not been kind to her.
Yesterday and last night. The worst thing now is her
lack of appetite, which condition

[ Page 2 ]

comes and goes by turns. Of course it makes her
weak and poorly, and troubles us much until she can bear the
sight of food again. We brought her down to the library
one day last week thinking the change might do her good.
And it certainly did her no harm that we could see.

She sends you dear love and thanks for your letter. You
did have Friday's luck in the moving didn't you? I hope
all is well now

Affectionately

Mary R. Jewett

Notes

Winter-Spring, between 1882 and 1889: As the note
below indicates, it seems likely this letter was composed between
1882 and 1889, and the years 1882, 1884, and 1889 seem equally
probable.

Rog: This seems likely to be Jewett's dog,
Roger. SOJ's letters mention him between 1881 and
1889. During those years, the most serious bouts of illness
SOJ reports are in letters of 22 February 1882, 22 April 1884, and
6 May 1889.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Columbia University
(New York) Library in Special Collections, Jewett.
Transcription from a microfilm copy and annotation by Terry
Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to John Greenleaf Whittier

Friday --
[ August, between 1882 and 1889 ]

My dear Friend

Your
package came today and I must thank you first for your dear note
and then for something so touching and peculiarly interesting
that I cant be grateful enough. Poor Miss Sally.* I never
shall forget her: -- few persons or things have ever made so
deep an impression in me though I only saw her once in her late
years. I have not had time to more than glance at these
memorials, but is not t[h]e letter that came with them a
charming one? You are so kind to me. It makes the
relationship we sometimes have talked of half laughingly a very
real one, and draws me very close to you all the time. I
really belong to you more lovingly every year, and it makes me
truly feel like “the little girl” to be so tenderly thought of,
and remembered in so many lovely ways. This has come so
close to my birthday* that I like to connect the worn letters
and your thought and the day all together.

We
talk every day about the First day afternoon and how much we
rejoiced being with you. Mrs. Lodge* has been here for a
day or two, so sweet and bright and kind and there has been a
great gossiping about the Associated Charities* not to speak of
lesser subjects. I must say good bye, but we both send
love to you.

Yours
affectionately

Sarah

Note

between 1882 and 1889: This letter must have been
composed between 1882, when Jewett began regular stays with
Annie Adams Fields in Boston and the death of Mary Greenwood
Lodge in 1889. A handwritten note on this transcription
reads: Whittier.

Poor Miss Sally: Miss Sally has not been
identified. She seems clearly to be close to Whittier and
at least an acquaintance of Jewett, who died between 1882 and
1889.

Associated Charities: Annie Adams Fields was a patron of
and volunteer for the Associated Charities of Boston. See
Correspondents.

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in
the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Folder 74, Burton
Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more information about
the individual transcription, contact the Maine Women Writers
Collection. Preparation by Linda Heller. Notes by
Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Annie Adams Fields

Friday morning
[ May 1, after 1882 ]

Dearest Fuff*

I have been on a trading binge to hold the horse for John* while
he got a bunch of shingles to mend the well house roof.
And we also went down to the boat house to see what must be done
about painting etc. I begin to feel in a hurry about going
down river! I particularly wish to take some photographs
before the leaves are fully out.

Here is the first of May, and no Pinny* going a Maying for press
of other business, only she may "fetch a compass" round
by the woods later in the day. -- I wonder what you
are going to do. Is it Board meeting* (As
usual?)

There is such a bustle out of doors now all the farmers are out
and they come hurrying into the village for seeds and shovels
and all sorts of things. After this time they have to be just as
hard at work as possible until after haying . . . . . . . . . .
. . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . -- With much love
from P. L.

Notes

After 1882: The letter must have been composed after
Jewett began using the Pinny Lawson nickname for herself in the
summer of 1882.
The ellipses in the transcription indicate
that this is a selection from the manuscript.

Board meeting: This would likely relate to the
Associated Charities of Boston.

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in the
Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Folder 72, Burton
Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more information about the
individual transcription, contact the Maine Women Writers
Collection. Preparation by Linda Heller. Notes by
Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Annie Adams Fields

Wednesday morning
[ After 1882 ]

Dearest Fuff.*

Didn't we have . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Dear Fuffy I feel sure that being so ill makes everything harder
to bear and now you are better life will be a good deal easier,
though never easy for us who are in the middle of its
waves. The best we can say to one another is Courage and
Patience! but first of all Love and Hope! and that
we do have in both our hearts, and if it were only to be in the
world for the sake of the joy it is to have one another I should
think it worth while! to have you and to love you is
so dear to me. And indeed a life very full of satisfaction
for both of us & we must forget the hard things in the
bright ones . . . . . . . . . .

Your own Pinny*

Notes

The ellipses in the transcription indicate that this is a
selection from the manuscript.

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in the
Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Folder 72, Burton
Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more information about
the individual transcription, contact the Maine Women Writers
Collection. Preparation by Linda Heller. Notes by
Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Annie Adams Fields

Monday

[ Summer, After 1882 ]

. . . . . . . . . . I have been weeding the garden with great
industry since tea -- and the portulacca bed is
clean as a whistle - much transplanting is also done
this day by me and sister! or I should have properly &
honestly said sister and me. Dear Fuff how I think of you
and love you. . . . . . . . . . . . .

(Pinny)

Notes

After 1882: The letter must have been composed after
Jewett began using the Pinny Lawson nickname for herself in the
summer of 1882.
The ellipses in the transcription indicate
that this is a selection from the manuscript.

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in the
Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Folder 72, Burton
Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more information about the
individual transcription, contact the Maine Women Writers
Collection. Preparation by Linda Heller. Notes by
Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Mary Rice Jewett

[ After 1882 ]

Dear Mary

Thursday. ---------- Give ever so much love to both
Aunts* also best respects… Mrs. Fields* sends affectionate
remembrance. Oh, here was slaying of Hittites and
Jebusites* last night. You know she had curiosities
respecting buffalo bugs?* Well, a beast was found in her
basket that has the crewels in it in a funny little pink &
white box, and we had to go out in the Avenue to slay it
properly, scratching it into the dirt. You ought to have
been here. I never saw but one or two before myself.
Goodbye from Sarah.

Notes

The hyphens at the beginning indicate this is an
incomplete transcription.

both Aunts: The Jewetts had many aunts with whom they
exchanged visits and letters. Which aunts are meant in
this case is not yet known.

slaying of Hittites and Jebusites: Hittites and Jebusites
are named in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible as among
the Canaanite nations who were occupants of the "promised land"
that was the destination of the Hebrews after their escape from
slavery in Egypt.

buffalo bugs: Probably black carpet beetles, the larvae of which
feed on natural fibers in carpets and clothing.

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in
the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Folder 74, Burton
Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more information about
the individual transcription, contact the Maine Women Writers
Collection. Preparation by Linda Heller. Notes by
Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Annie Adams Fields

Tuesday afternoon

[ After 1882 ]*

Dear T.L.*

You know that I told you about the
poor woman who disappeared in the night? To-day somebody came
racing to the village with the news that there was a drowned
person in the river,* and so this is the end of the miserable
story. Instead of going to the river at the landing she
went across the fields and pastures to a lonely spot far from
any houses and there tied a great stone into her apron and
fastened it to her foot and another to her hand and to her
neck with bits of her clothes -- All this at
midnight and in the white moonlight of that week -- She
said in the piteous letter that she left that she

[ Page 2 ]

should need no burial -- and so down she went into
the water to be done with her life and its troubles --
It seems to me a most [ deleeted word ] tragic thing,
and [ deleted word ] as if people here did not half
take in the full misery of it -- After the fisherman saw
her she was taken out and brought to the village an awful
muffled thing in a wagon and the people[ deleted word
] stood in little knots together and watched it go by --
Then imagine a little later that the daughter is brought by
the coroner and that she goes in to the little brick building
where the town's prisoners

[ Page 3 ]

are put and where the body lies, while a little black crowd
wait silently outside. And she acknowledges that it is her
mother and [ is corrected from it ] told that she may
go away and out she comes alone trying to be bold and not to
show that she is shocked, but with a dismal white color to her
face and a consciousness of guilt surrounding her like a cloak
of lead so that she walks heavily and hindered -- I saw her as
she went up the street, and afterward some body told me that
she showed no feeling but I have wished and wished that I had
gone over to her{.}

[ Page 4 ]

[ Five deleted lines. ]

It was a low dull face, yet not without
some prettiness [ perhaps two deleted words ] --
Where is there a preacher who can make such people hear!
------ Why, it was somehow like having seen The Scarlet
Letter* in real life, it was exactly as solemn and weird a
thing as that would be. The whole story is most sad
-- The poor soul who drowned herself had been wild and
astray in her youth -- it seems as if she had gone
crazy with the daughters sin to double

[ Page 5 ]

her own guilt -- It is all most pathetic to [ deleted
word, perhaps heard] ^hear^ of the little legacies that
she left to her friends and of her saying in the letter that
she gave some poor trifle to an acquaintance "in gratitude for
her kindness" ---- I think the wretched fellow who
has been with the girl is to be blamed as much as any one --

[ No signature ]

Notes

After 1882: The letter offers little clue of its
date. It was written after Jewett and Fields began using
the nickname "T.L." during their European tour in the summer
of 1882. The story of the suicide it repeats has not yet
been located elsewhere.

. . . . . . .
. . . I hope to finish the sketch today. Things are always
longer than ropes when you have to copy them but this is really
only fifty five or six pages just about right I think for what
it is. I long to read it to you. I don't know when I
have laughed so over anything that belonged to me! I hope
your picture sale has been prosperous but I am afraid it cant
draw as it did last year. People would buy one who would
care about two! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Notes

After 1882: The earliest boundary for this
letter would have to be after Jewett and Fields return from
their first European trip late in 1882. While it cannot be
known which of Jewett's stories would make her laugh, some
strong candidates are: "The Dulham Ladies" (1886), "The Courting
of Sister Wisby" (1887), "Law Lane" (1887), "The Guests of Mrs.
Timms" (1894), and "Bold Words at the Bridge" (1899)

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in the
Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Folder 72, Burton
Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more information about the
individual transcription, contact the Maine Women Writers
Collection. Preparation by Linda Heller. Notes by
Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Annie Adams Fields

Saturday afternoon

[ Winter between 1882 and 1890 ]

I came so near seeing you today darling that I miss you all the
more because I gave it up. This morning I said to myself
why shouldn't I go to you and spend Sunday and come down on
Monday with Cora*, and it was the loveliest thing in the world
to think about, so pretty soon I tumbled out of bed and felt
very eager and happy and I was to take the two o'clock train and
reach Charles St. before you came in yourself and then I didn't
exactly know where I would be when you hurried up the stairs to
get ready for dinner. Oh darling I cant bear to give up
this lovely long evening I might have had with you! But
you must see that when I came down stairs I found that Mother
looked even more pale and tired than when we came home last
night and she told me that she was not feeling quite well by
everything she did much plainer than if she had talked a great
deal about it. And a little later John* who rarely takes a
holiday said that he hoped to go to Portsmouth if it is good
weather tomorrow and might he have one of the horses? So I
thought that Mother might not like to stay alone tonight, and I
didn't wish to break up John's plans and I shall like to keep my
eye on the furnace if he is gone! and so -- I
couldn't see my little books, and there is a little crack in my
heart that never will be mended until I do see you dear.
Mother brightened up amazingly when it was too late to go!
and I suppose I really might have been away as well as not but
it did not look like it and I did what was right then. I
feel as if I were tying myself to the rigging this time!
-- for you did want me to come today, didn't you
darling? It was dismal to have Mother propose that I
should go over to Exeter and spend Sunday! I couldn't

(rest missing)

Notes

Winter between 1882 and 1890: The composition date
is bounded by the the establishment of intimate friendship
between Jewett and Fields and the death of Jewett's mother in
October 1891. For Caroline Perry Jewett, see Correspondents.

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in the
Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Folder 72, Burton
Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more information about the
individual transcription, contact the Maine Women Writers
Collection. Preparation by Linda Heller. Notes by
Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Lilian Woodman Aldrich

[ 1882 or after but no later than
1904 ]*

Dear Little Duchess*

Mary Ann* has been telling me about your
setting yourself a-fire and I am in a great frame of mind about
you. I shall tag you about and see that you behave yourself
better! I have been wishing and wishing to see you, but I
have had such "cricks" and yesterday

[ Page 2 ]

the worst headache that ever was, so I had to give up Mrs
Whitman's* lovely lunch [ at corrected ] the last minute,
and go to bed. I haven't put my head outside the door today
for I am going to a dinner tonight [uncertain mark, perhaps
intending a comma] that I should hate to give up -- I shall
try to see you tomorrow certain

[ Page 3 ]

sure -- I hope Mr Bugbee* is getting on comfortably though
that is not a comfortable illness at its best.
Good-bye dear -- I wish I didn't have to send my love to you for I
would so much rather bring it --

Yours always

Sarah

Notes

1904: Jewett's acquaintance with Sarah Wyman Whitman
seems likely to have begun in about 1882, when they first began
corresponding. Whitman died in 1904.

Duchess: The Aldriches were affectionately known
among their friends as the Duke and Duchess of Ponkapog. See Correspondents.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library,
Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Thomas Baily Aldrich Papers,
119 letters of Thomas Bailey and Lilian Woodman Aldrich,
1837-1926. MS Am 1429 (117). Transcribed and annotated by Terry
Heller, Coe College.
At the bottom left of page one, in another
hand, is a circled number: 2670.

SOJ to Lilian Woodman Aldrich

Manchester
Friday [ 1883 - 1901 ]

Dear Lilian

I was sure of leaving here earlier than this
when I saw you last but Mrs. Fields* is having to stay later on
account of carpentering &c. besides the inducement of the
lovely weather -- So instead of the 29th as you promised
why wont you come the

[ Page 2 ]

next week. Wednesday say, or any day you choose afterward?
If I were just away visiting I would not think of putting off your
visit, but it is pretty lonely here at night and I shouldn't like
to go away before A.F. is ready.

-- I know you will understand dear Lilian -- I

[ Page 3 ]

am looking forward to your coming with such pleasure and Mary* has
been writing about it too. I was in town day before yesterday but
I didn't get time to see you --

With dear love

Yours ever

S. O. J.

Notes

1883 - 1901: This date range is bounded by Jewett's
beginning to stay regularly with Annie Fields in Boston and
Manchester, MA, and her nearly fatal carriage accident in
September 1902. As it seems late in the season, this letter
probably is from September or October of the year in which it was
written.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library,
Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Thomas Bailey Aldrich Papers,
119 letters of Thomas Bailey and Lilian Woodman Aldrich,
1837-1926. MS Am 1429 (117). Transcribed and annotated by Terry
Heller, Coe College.
At the bottom left of page one, in another
hand, is a circled number: 2732.

SOJ to Lilian Woodman Aldrich

Sunday -- 148 Charles St.
[ 1883 - 1902 ]*

Dear Lilian

When I got here yesterday I found that
A.F.* had asked somebody to come to luncheon here tomorrow
^on Tuesday I mean^, so that there was an end of my plan for
coming out to Ponkapog -- I am sorry and so is she -- it is
only one person who is coming and yet we cannot very well

[ Page 2 ]

rearrange her! --

I do hope that neither you nor T.B.A.* got
cold = dont believe that there is always such weather at the
corner!

With love from A.F. & me

Yours affectionately

S. O. J.

I hope that you had a dear day on Thursday.

Notes

1883 - 1902: These boundary dates begin with Jewett's
regular stays with Anne Fields and end with Jewett's near fatal
carriage accident in September 1902. It is possible but less
likely that Jewett wrote this letter after 1902.A.F.: Annie Adams Fields. See Correspondents.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library,
Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Thomas Baily Aldrich Papers,
119 letters of Thomas Bailey and Lilian Woodman Aldrich,
1837-1926. MS Am 1429 (117). Transcribed and annotated by Terry
Heller, Coe College.
At the bottom left of page one, in another
hand, is a circled number: 2716.

SOJ to Lilian Woodman and Thomas Bailey Aldrich

[ Saturday 1883-1908 ]

Dear Friends

Mrs. Fields* says this morning that she wishes
to see you so much and will be so glad if you can come before
long. I think that the best time is late in an afternoon and
I send the lady's bidding with [deleted word ] her love and
mine.

S. O. J.

148 Charles St.
Saturday --

Notes

1883-1908: An invitation by Jewett to the Fields him
almost certainly would occur after their 1882 European tour.
The Houghton library identifies the recipients of the letter as
the Aldriches.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library,
Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Thomas Baily Aldrich Papers,
119 letters of Thomas Bailey and Lilian Woodman Aldrich,
1837-1926. MS Am 1429 (117). Transcribed and annotated by Terry
Heller, Coe College.
At the bottom left of page one, in another
hand, is a circled number: 2677.

SOJ to Lilian Woodman Aldrich

South Berwick
Christmas night
[ 25 December 1882 - 1908 ]

Dear Lilian

To thank you for many things and much dear
kindness and then for such a dear spoon! I like it very much -- I
hope that I can spend some days in

[ Page 2 ]

town next week, and than I shall see you if I can.

Yours most affectionately

S. O. J.

Notes

1882 - 1908: Probably this letter was composed
between the 1882 Jewett-Fields European tour and Jewett's final
Christmas in 1908.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library,
Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Thomas Baily Aldrich Papers,
119 letters of Thomas Bailey and Lilian Woodman Aldrich,
1837-1926. MS Am 1429 (117). Transcribed and annotated by Terry
Heller, Coe College.
At the bottom left of page one, in another
hand, is a circled number: 2674.

SOJ to Edward Henry Rollins

South Berwick, Maine February 23
[ Before 1889 ]

My dear Mr. Rollins

I shall certainly do whatever I can in
regard to the matter of the Hale property,* both for the sake of
those good ladies our friends, and because I agree with you that
such a beautiful old estate ought not to fall into
unappreciative or unworthy hands, for their sakes or its
own. I am sending your letter to some friends who have had
the matter in mind and who already know about the place, since
they may be able to do more than I can just now.

We must both wish that the land between the
house and the river had not been sold, but that cannot be helped
now. Neither can we bring back the old warehouse! The
exquisite old garden can be brought back, however, and I hope that
we can find the right persons to do it.

Believe
me,

Yours very truly,
S. O. Jewett

Notes

Before 1889: The letter must have been composed
before the death of Senator Rollins. Notes on this
transcription read: ROLLINS ESTATE [letter owned at "Three
Rivers Farms" by the heirs of Edward Henry Rollins, U. S.
Senator (b. Rollinsford, 1824; d.
Isles of Shoals, 1889)].

Hale property: It seems possible that Jewett
refers to the property of the Portsmouth Manufacturing Company in South
Berwick, formerly owned by Samuel Hale and his son
Francis. This includes what is now the Counting House
Museum of the Old Berwick Historical Society. See also "The Landing Mill and its Time" by Annie
Wentworth Baer.

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in the
Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Folder 72, Burton
Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more information about
the individual transcription, contact the Maine Women Writers
Collection. Preparation by Linda Heller. Notes by
Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Lilian Woodman Aldrich

[ Top left partially circled to be read at leisure! ]

Tuesday
[ Summer 1883-1889 ]

My dear Lilian

We are so sorry to go, and so little
while before you come! I know that you will have the best of good
times and I [ wish corrected ] that we were going to show
you some of the delightful corners we have found -- these three
weeks and two days. We have found

[ Page 2 ]

some delightful Buffalo people who wish to know you both
(or course!) and you will find them most companionable as we have
-- Mr. & Mrs Rumsey and their niece Mrs. Wilcox.* Mrs.
Rumsey is deaf, but a great book-lover and really charming
person. And I have asked my dear little Miss Lovering to put
some flowers in

[ Page 3 ]

your room for me, and I want you to know her too -- she is with
the Rumseys but is a Boston girl or rather Milton: cousin of the
Shimmins* &c. &c! We did so hope you would come
this week when we decided to stay so long, but indeed we have
stayed longer that we could!

I forget whether you care much for
sailing but it is

[ Page 4 ]

very smooth and good in the bay: a first rate wind almost always,
and no roughness. We could have had such larks together, but
we ^(A.F.* & I)^ groan about going and leaving you. But you
see we started at only a day's notice and really thought two days
weeks ^absence^ the very longest we could manage. I wish you
just as good a time as we have had.

With every so much love

"Sadie"*

[ Up the left margin of page 1 ]

Tell Mr. T.B. I have got the "Queen of Sheba"*
to read on my journey.

Notes

Summer 1883-1889: This speculative date derives from
the notes below. The letter would have to be composed after
the 1883 marriage of Mary Rumsey Wilcox. If the guess about
Miss Lovering's identity is correct, it would have to be written
before her death in 1890, but not in 1890, when Jewett was
traveling in Europe.

Mr. & Mrs Rumsey and their niece Mrs. Wilcox: Mrs
Wilcox is Mary Grace Rumsey (1855-1933), daughter of Dexter Rumsey
(1827-1906) and Susan Fiske (1857-1941), who in 1883 married Ansley Wilcox (1856-1930) of Buffalo,
NY. Her uncle and aunt were Bronson
Case Rumsey (1823-1902) and Evelyn Hall (1823-1900) of
Buffalo. Bronson and his brother, Dexter, were the owners of Aaron
Rumsey & Company, a leather tanning firm. They were
extremely successful, becoming the principal property owners in
Buffalo.

Miss Lovering ... cousin of the Shimmins: Identifying Miss
Lovering exactly has not proven possible. The "Lovering"
name is remembered in Bronson Rumsey's elder daughter, Mary
Lovering Rumsey (b. 1851), suggesting some connection between the
Rumseys and a Lovering family. Back Bay Houses records that Frederick
Alexander Lovering (1833-1885) and Julianna Maria Shimmin resided
on Clarendon Street in 1873 and also maintained a home in Milton,
MA. They had two daughters, Julia Eliza and Sarah Charlotte (1850- 11 November 1890).
Sarah Charlotte resided in Milton after 1885.
While it seems reasonably likely that Sarah
Charlotte is the Miss Lovering Jewett mentions, she would be a daughter
of a Shimmin whom the Aldriches and Jewett might know, though
perhaps a cousin to other Shimmins known to them.

Queen of Sheba: Thomas Bailey Aldrich published his novel,
The Queen of Sheba in 1877.

Sadie: One of Jewett's nicknames. With the Aldriches,
this would have been Sadie Martinot, after the actress of that
name. See Correspondents.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library,
Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Thomas Baily Aldrich Papers,
119 letters of Thomas Bailey and Lilian Woodman Aldrich,
1837-1926. MS Am 1429 (117). Transcribed and annotated by Terry
Heller, Coe College.
At the bottom left of page one, in another
hand, is a circled number: 2672.

SOJ to Thomas Bailey Aldrich

South Berwick
20 February [ 1883 - 1890 ]*

[ Letterhead of the initials SOJ superimposed
]

Dear Mr. Aldrich

Mrs. Fields* has just written me that [deleted
word ] you -- I mean the Atlantic -- took the boat song*
away to be printed -- I'm afraid you wont want it, for it is
already in print. I gave it to a little paper that

[ Page 2 ]

was published at a fair in Portsmouth and Hoffman the New York
pianist saw it by chance and set it to music and it was afterward
published by some music publishers. I am very sorry, for I
wish it could be in the Atlantic and this all puts it out of

[ Page 3 ]

the question doesn't it? I wrote it for the Atlantic to
begin with, strangely enough. Mr. Howells* sent to me for
some verses at a time when he had a musical department in the
magazine -- but he didn't like my boat song though I have always
been fond of it myself.

-- I hear that the Duchess* goes to New

[ Page 4 ]

York today, and I wish her a pleasant journey. I wish she had been
coming here instead, though I must confess that I dont find
Berwick delightful at this time of the year --

Good-by my dear friend!

Yours always sincerely

S. O. J.

Notes

1883 - 1890: The date range for this letter is based
upon the following facts. Aldrich left his editorial
position at Atlantic in June 1890. Jewett's poem,
"The Boat Song" was published in a piano and voice arrangement in
1879. Jewett began writing for parts of each year at the
home of Annie Adams Fields no earlier than 1883.

boat song: Weber and Weber report Jewett's statement that
"The Boat Song" first appeared in a little paper published at a
fair in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. However, this paper has not
been located. John Austin Parker, "Sarah Orne Jewett's 'Boat
Song,'" American Literature 23 (1951), according to Nagel
and Nagel's Sarah Orne Jewett: A Reference Guide, writes:
"Among the uncataloged materials of the Library of Congress is a
copy of 'Boat Song,' words by Miss Sarah O. Jewett. Music by
Richd. Hoffman. New York: G. Schirmer, c. 1879."

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library,
Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Thomas Baily Aldrich Papers,
119 letters of Thomas Bailey and Lilian Woodman Aldrich,
1837-1926. MS Am 1429 (117). Transcribed and annotated by Terry
Heller, Coe College.
At the bottom left of page one, in
another hand, is a circled number: 2655.

SOJ to Annie Adams Fields

Monday morning

[ Late Winter after 1883 ]

Dear darling Your letter has done me good, and I wish you
would scold at me a great deal more than you ever do. I
dont believe it was anything but tiredness that made me
miserable when I read the Atlantic notice.* An awful
feeling of despair rushed over me at the thought of doing any
more writing at all. This has been one of the times when I
really have lost all my interest in my stories --
and it was not so much that my pride was hurt as that I felt
entirely incapable of doing anything more at all. When I
think about it now, seriously, I am sure that I have done the
best I could at this work of mine, and so I have nothing to
fear. I shall be better by and by, and the stories will
begin to write themselves down again but the truth is that most
of the time now I am really ill. It frets me even to think
about copying and all the rest of it! and at the same time
I am worrying because I cant get any work done when for many
reasons it would be best. I begin to dread next winter
before this one is finished. I wonder why the people who
are well most of the time are not a great deal better
contented! I believe I should not mind anything much if I
were only well . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Notes

The ellipsis in the transcription indicates that this is a
selection from the manuscript.

Atlantic notice: It is as yet difficult to know
of what review Jewett speaks. Generally, Atlantic
reviews of her books were very positive, though Horace Scudder
and others repeated that Jewett's scope was narrow and
quiet. Atlantic usually had some interest in
speaking well of her work because good sales of her books and
stories benefited the magazine. Among the known commentary
in Atlantic, only one review seems less than wholly
complimentary, The Story of the Normans in Atlantic
Monthly 59 (June 1887), 859. It is difficult to
believe that this would discourage her as much as she reports in
this letter. Assistance is welcome.

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in the
Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Folder 72, Burton
Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more information about the
individual transcription, contact the Maine Women Writers
Collection. Preparation by Linda Heller. Notes by
Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Lilian Woodman Aldrich

[ After Christmas, 1883 - 1908]

Dear Lilian

I have been hoping to see you to thank you for
the charming Christmas present you gave me but the bad weather has
kept me in so far. So I send this written word just to say ^thank
you^ for A.F. and myself were as delighted as we could be with*

[ Page 2 ]

not only the Russian treasure but your dear kindness --

Yours lovingly

"Sadie"*

Notes

1883 - 1908: Jewett could have composed this letter
almost any winter, beginning as early as January 1883, after which
time she often stayed at Annie Fields's Boston home.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library,
Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Thomas Baily Aldrich Papers,
119 letters of Thomas Bailey and Lilian Woodman Aldrich,
1837-1926. MS Am 1429 (117). Transcribed and annotated by Terry
Heller, Coe College.
At the bottom left of page one, in another
hand, is a circled number: 2661.

SOJ to Lilian Woodman Aldrich

[ Probably after 1883 ]*

Dear Lilian

We shall take great pleasure in dining with you
tonight, but I am afraid I cant lunch with you tomorrow I am so
busy just now -- I saw dear old Mrs. Hall* a week or [ two ?
] ago. So, I shall be*

[ Page 2 ]

all the sorrier to miss her --

Yours lovingly

Sarah

Notes

after 1888: The earliest letter we have to date in
which Jewett addresses Mrs. Aldrich as "Lilian" is tentatively
dated from June 1883, though Jewett's acquaintance with the
Aldriches dates from Mr. Aldrich becoming editor at Atlantic.

Mrs. Hall: This person has not been identified.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library,
Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Thomas Baily Aldrich Papers,
119 letters of Thomas Bailey and Lilian Woodman Aldrich,
1837-1926. MS Am 1429 (117). Transcribed and annotated by Terry
Heller, Coe College.At the bottom left of page one, in
another hand, is a circled number: 2664.

SOJ to Lilian Woodman Aldrich

[ Begin letterhead ]

148. Charles Street,
Boston.

[ End letterhead ]

Tuesday [ 1883 or later ]*

Dear Lilian

[ Three unrecognized words Dont it
pour! ? ] A. F.* accepts with pleasure though she is
afraid she may be tired after a meeting which will keep her nearly
to the dinner time. Now, call Sadie* a good girl because she
has not told the Charming Secret -- and you will have one other
person to surprise!

[ Page 2 ]

A. F. hopes I am right in telling her that it is not to be a large
formal party because she cannot come home to dress again after
"Ward 9"* proceedings.

Dear Lilian I hope you will have a very good
time yourself. I am sure everybody else will --

Yours affectionately

S. O. J.

Notes

1883 or later: Almost certainly this letter was
composed after Jewett and Fields toured Europe in 1882.
.A. F.: Annie Adams Fields. See Correspondents.

Sadie: One of Jewett's nicknames. With the Aldriches,
this would have been Sadie Martinot.

"Ward 9": Jewett sometimes says that when staying
with Annie Fields at 148 Charles Street, she would be in Boston's
ninth ward.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library,
Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Thomas Baily Aldrich Papers,
119 letters of Thomas Bailey and Lilian Woodman Aldrich,
1837-1926. MS Am 1429 (117). Transcribed and annotated by Terry
Heller, Coe College.
At the bottom left of page one, in another
hand, is a circled number: 2666.

32

SOJ to Lilian Woodman Aldrich

Sunday afternoon
[ Autumn 1883 or later ]

Dearest Duchess

I hope that the headache was lost off the cars
between Boston and Ponkapog and that you have let yourself get
rested and well again -- It was lovely to be with you but I think
I was a dismal visitor. I am not apt to be such a coward either
when I dont feel well, but life looks much brighter now and

[ Page 2 ]

I shall hoist my sails in a day or two and stand out to sea for a
new voyage! And now you have taken me for worse it is sure to be better
next time,* and we will have no end of a lark wont we?

All the maple leaves have suddenly taken it
into their heads to come out in bright colors after all, and
Berwick is very pretty. I am

[ Page 3 ]

going to drive "the minister" to a conference up in the country
one day this week and I am looking forward to a great deal of
pleasure. I may stay over night at Lebanon for it is a a long pull
there, over the hills, and I am not quite up to doing so much in
one day. Wish me good weather, and wish you were there too
to see the country ministers and to hear the old ladies sing
Dundee and St. Martin's* and the rest of the psalm

[ Page 4 ]

tunes -- I wish we could go off for a two days journey [ deleted
word ] in 'our own conveyance' ----- I hope Mr.
Aldrich had a good time in Portsmouth. Give my love to him, and to
the boys and S. Rabbi!* -- it just occurred to me that your
nickname might be spelt that way as if to 'set' [deleted
letters] a Hebrew Ecclesiastic at somebody as if he were a
dog that he should do this thing. S -- L -- Rabini!* ---
that is very silly dear little Duchess but I cant tear all of it
out

[ Up the left margin of page 1 ]

of the letter. Good bye -- wait until you see me

[ Up the left margin of page 2 ]

walking in with the green dress on! Yours always

Sarah --

Notes

Autumn 1883 or later: To date, the earliest Jewett
letter addressed to Lilian Aldrich as the Duchess is dated 27 July
1881. However, this letter seems to have been sent from Boston,
probably from the home of Annie Fields. In the autumn of
1882, Fields and Jewett were in Europe, so the earliest date for
this letter probably is 1883.

Duchess: The Aldriches were affectionately known
among their friends as the Duke and Duchess of Ponkapog. See Correspondents.

next time: Jewett seems to be playing on the familiar
wedding vows, in which the partners take each other for better and
for worse.

'our own conveyance': Why Jewett puts this phrase in
quotation marks is unknown.

Dundee and St. Martin's: Dundee is a Scottish psalter
tune to which various appropriately arranged psalms and other
hymns might be sung. St. Martin's (1740) is similar in it
uses, but has a known composer, William
Tans'ur (c. 1700-1783).

Rabini: This piece of silliness, as Jewett labels it, seems
to be about the Aldriches current dog, but this has not been
confirmed. If she does refer to a dog, she may also allude to
Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, in which Shylock is
at least once compared to a dog (Act 1, Scene 3).

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library,
Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Thomas Baily Aldrich Papers,
119 letters of Thomas Bailey and Lilian Woodman Aldrich,
1837-1926. MS Am 1429 (117). Transcribed and annotated by Terry
Heller, Coe College.
At the bottom left of page one, in another
hand, is a circled number: 2668.

SOJ to Lilian Woodman Aldrich

148 Charles Street
[ 1883or later ]

Dearest Lilian

Thank you and the Duke* for your dear presents
which we have taken to our hearts. I dont see how you could
give away that cup but I think the more of myself because it came
to me.

[ Page 2 ]

The books are both beautiful -- -- but I wish you were across the
street for a day so I could go across to kiss you and thank you
and gossip with you. T. L.* sends her dear love and
thanks. And we both hope to see you soon --

[ Page 3 ]

Yours always lovingly

Sadie*

Notes

1883 or later: Almost certainly this letter was
composed after Jewett and Fields toured Europe in 1882.

Duke: The Aldriches were affectionately known among
their friends as the Duke and Duchess of Ponkapog. See Correspondents.

Sadie: One of Jewett's nicknames. With the Aldriches,
this would have been Sadie Martinot. See Correspondents.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library,
Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Thomas Baily Aldrich Papers,
119 letters of Thomas Bailey and Lilian Woodman Aldrich,
1837-1926. MS Am 1429 (117). Transcribed and annotated by Terry
Heller, Coe College.
At the bottom left of page one, in another
hand, is a circled number: 2667.

SOJ to Thomas Bailey Aldrich

[ 1884 - 1891 ]*

Will a kind author please write his name in this treasured book of
a little boy, nephew to S.O.J.* who will thank him ever so much
and come after the book herself in a day or two?

Notes

1884 - 1891: This estimate is based upon Theodore J.
Eastman being considered a reading little boy between the ages of
5 and 12.

nephew: Theodore Jewett Eastman. See Correspondents.
It would seem likely that the book is The Story of a Bad Boy
(1869).

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library,
Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Thomas Baily Aldrich Papers,
119 letters of Thomas Bailey and Lilian Woodman Aldrich,
1837-1926. MS Am 1429 (117). Transcribed and annotated by Terry
Heller, Coe College.
At the bottom left of page one, in another
hand, is a circled number: 2678.

SOJ to Louisa Loring Dresel

Wednesday evening
[ 1887 or later ]*

Dear Loulie

I thank you most lovingly for the flower which
kept me company in the most friendly manner all yesterday
afternoon while Mrs. Fields* was away.

Do come to see me sometime today or [deleted
letters] tomorrow [deleted letters] if you can -- the
sooner the better!

Yours affectionately
S. O. J.

Two big blots
one small note . . .*

Notes

1887 or later: To date, the earliest known letter
between Jewett and Dresel is from 1887. Written in another
hand at the top left of page one is the date 1885, but no
rationale is given.

small note: On the manuscript, the two sets of
deleted letters make dark blots.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Small Library,
University of Virginia, Special Collections MSS 6218, Sarah Orne
Jewett Papers. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.

[ Begin letterhead ]

148. Charles Street.
Boston.

[ End letterhead ]

Friday
[ 1887 or later ]

Dear Loulie

When I went out this morning to take my
walk I was sure that I should not come in again without going
to see you to thank you for the lovely flowers. Mrs.
Fields* and I have had a beautiful time with

[ Page 2 ]

them and they add another pleasure to the many you have
already given me. I am sorry I have [written over had]
to write this instead of saying it! but I got quite hot
and tired out of doors. However I shall hope to see you
very soon.

Yours affectionately
S. O. J.

' next door '

Notes

1887 or later: To date, the earliest known letter
between Jewett and Dresel is from 1887. A partly readable
date in another hand appears at the top left of page 1, asserting
that the letter is from the 1880s.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Small Library,
University of Virginia, Special Collections MSS 6218, Sarah Orne
Jewett Papers. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.

[ Begin letterhead ]

148. Charles Street.
Boston.

[ End letterhead ]

Friday
[ 1887 or later ]

My dear Loulie

If you thought I was unmindful of the
flowers night before last, you were quite wrong, that's all! I
wish the little dark one need never go out of bloom -- -- it
never will either, for I shall always remember it -- I meant
to

[ Page 2 ]

send these loving thanks to you yesterday but somehow I didnt
feel like doing anything at all, and now I thank you twice
over. Do come whenever you can my dear little neighbor!

Yours affectionately

S. O. J.

Notes

1887 or later: To date, the earliest known letter
between Jewett and Dresel is from 1887. Written in another
hand at the top left of page one is "1885 or '84", but no
rationale is given.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Small Library,
University of Virginia, Special Collections MSS 6218, Sarah Orne
Jewett Papers. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.

Isabella Steward Gardner to SOJ

[ After 1887 ]*

My best love, dear --

After the Sad Good Friday, comes the happy Easter*

Isabella S. Gardner

Notes

After 1887: Currently available evidence suggests
that correspondence between Jewett and Gardner began in about
1887.

Good Friday ... Easter: For Christians, Good Friday
is the anniversary of Christ's crucifixion, and Easter of His
resurrection.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library,
Harvard University, bMS Am 1743.1 (37). Transcribed and
annotated by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Isabella Steward Gardner to Annie Adams Fields

July 24 [ 1887-1890 ]*

[ Begin Letterhead ]

Green Hill
Brookline Mass.

[ End Letterhead ]

Dear Mrs. Fields

You are very good & kind to me -- but alas,
I cannot profit as I must come back here from my Pride's Crossing*
visit, next Monday.

[ Page 2 ]

I am due at [ Medfield ? ].* I am very sorry, but I
do hope I may at least be able to get over to see you & Miss
Jewett -- I long for a sight of you both.

With a great deal of love I am as always

Affecty yours
Isabella S. Gardner

Notes

1887-1890: The date range is highly
speculative. Currently available evidence suggests that
correspondence between Jewett and Gardner began in about 1887,
though Gardner and Fields are likely to have met earlier. If
the visit to Medfield was, indeed, to Dennis Bunker (see below),
then this range is probably close.

Pride's Crossing: A neighborhood in Beverly, MA, not
far from Manchester-by-the-Sea, where Annie Fields had a summer
home.

Medfield: Though this transcription is uncertain,
Gardner had some acquaintance in Medfield, MA, including the
painter, Dennis Miller Bunker (1861-1890) and Eleanor Hardy (1869-1953), whom he married
shortly before his death in 1890.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library,
Harvard University, bMS Am 1743 (295). Transcribed and
annotated by Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Sarah Cabot Wheelwright

148 Charles Street
Wednesday
[ Autumn 1889 or later ]*

[ Letterhead at left margin consisting of the initials SOJ
overlapping inside a circle ]

Dear Sarah*

I tried to find you this morning at Lincoln by
telephone but you were not there -- Tonight I thought you would be
tired. I am going down to Naushon tomorrow for two nights
and home on Saturday so that I fear that I shall not have a chance
to see you now. Wont you or Mary* send a postcard to South
Berwick

[ Page 2 ]

so that I shall find it on Saturday and know that you got home all
right?

- Mrs. Fields* came up from Manchester
yesterday -- a very good 'moving' but the house looked quite sad
as we drove away -- it was an enchantingly beautiful
morning. This is just a word to carry my love to all three.

Sarah

Mrs. Fields sends love.

Notes

1889 or later: Mrs. Fields is known to have had a
telephone as early as 1884. As of this writing, the earliest known
reference to Mrs. Wheelwright in Jewett's letters is in
1889. Presumably, then, this letter was composed in that
year or later.

Sarah: The microfilm copy of this letter suggest that
it is written on two sides of a half sheet.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Small Library,
University of Virginia, Special Collections MSS 6218, Sarah Orne
Jewett Papers. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.

SOJ to Sarah Perkins Cabot Wheelwright

Manchester
Tuesday
[ 1889 or later ]

[ Letterhead at left margin consisting of the initials SOJ
overlapping inside a circle ] Dear S. I write
just a line to say that I look forward with joy to going to the
theatre with you, and I shall be on hand at 73* a little after
half past one -- I wish that I could come to luncheon too -- but I
have got no end of morning errands and then I must

[ Page 2 ]

get back to Charles Street for a few minutes between. Oh how
nice to think of seeing you!

With love always

S. O. J.

Thursday. 1.30 +*

Notes

1889 or later: As of this writing, the earliest known
reference to Mrs. Wheelwright in Jewett's letters is in
1889. Presumably, then, this letter was composed in that
year or later. Working from a microfilm copy, this letter
appears to be on half a sheet.

73: According to Clark's Boston Blue Book (p. 224), in 1907,
the Wheelwrights resided at 73 Mt. Vernon Street in Boston.
The length of their residence at this address is not yet known. On
the basis of this information, I have presumed that this fragment
is addressed to Mrs. Wheelwright.Thursday. 1.30 +: Presumably, Jewett is repeating
the projected time of her arrival.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Small Library,
University of Virginia, Special Collections MSS 6218, Sarah Orne
Jewett Papers. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.

SOJ to Annie Adams Fields

Sunday night
[ Before August 1891 ]*

My Dearest Fuff*

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I have come across an
enchanting book called Forty Years in a Moorland Parish*
-- the Parish of Danby not far from Whitby. I dont
think it is your kind of thing but I love it and find so much in
it that is curiously familiar in works & ways to a Berwick
herron.* I must ask Mr. Lowell if he knows anything about
him if he feels like talking when I see him again. I mean
to try to get out there this week. Goodnight
darling

from Pinny.*

Notes

The ellipsis in the transcription indicates that this is a
selection from the manuscript.

1891: That she implies James Russell Lowell is
chronically ill suggests that this is the final year of his
life. He died in August 1891.

Forty Years in a Moorland Parish: John Christopher Atkinson (1814-1900) was
an English Anglican priest, writer and antiquary. "His
best-known work ... was a collection of local legends and
traditions which he published in 1891, with the title Forty
Years in a Moorland Parish." He served the Parish of
Danby (Yorkshire) from 1847 until his death.

Berwick herron: Is this a misspelling? What Jewett
refers to remains mysterious. Assistance is welcome.

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in the
Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Folder 72, Burton
Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more information about the
individual transcription, contact the Maine Women Writers
Collection. Preparation by Linda Heller. Notes by
Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to John Greenleaf Whittier

South Berwick

Thursday [Spring before September 1892]*

My dear Friend,

I
sent you a bottle of medicine yesterday afternoon, for I think
it will do you good to “take a little sometin” as the old
farmers say. I think that two or three teaspoonfuls
several times a day in a little milk would be a good
prescription.

I
am so glad to have seen you and to know with my own eyes that
you are on the mend. I think with sorrow of being far away
from you, and then I remember how near we are who love each
other, and the time will fly fast at any rate until I am back
again.

Mary*
and I had a dear call to remember and we both send you much love
and to Mr. and Mrs. Cartland and Mrs. Pickard* if she is still
there. Dont try to write until by and by when you feel
stronger. Wait until the robbins [so transcribed]
come and bring you a new pen. Yesterday I was out driving
and we thought we heard one and stopped the horses in the woods
with great interest and then found that it was only the
whiffle-tree* squeaking.

Yours most affectionately

Sarah

Notes

before 1892: This letter must have been composed
between 1877, when Jewett and Whittier became acquainted, and
September 1892, when Whittier died. A handwritten note on this
transcription reads: Whittier.

Mr. and Mrs. Cartland and Mrs. Pickard: Cary identifies
Joseph Cartland (1810-1898) and Gertrude Cartland (1822-1911),
who accompanied Whittier on his summer vacations in Maine and
New Hampshire for five decades, and in whose home at
Newburyport, Massachusetts, he lived most of his last fifteen
winters.
See Samuel Thomas Pickard in Correspondents.

whiffle-tree: Usually whiffle-tree, this would be known to
Jewett and Whittier as a mechanism for allowing horses to pull
implements, especially in teams.

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in the
Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Folder 74, Burton
Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more information about
the individual transcription, contact the Maine Women Writers
Collection. Preparation by Linda Heller. Notes by
Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Annie Adams FieldsOctober.
[1882 or after; before January 1888 ]*

The two notes you sent me tonight are
very dear prints of your footsteps along the path of life. A
sentimental Pinny to express herself so, but she feels it to the
bottom of her heart. Miss Grant# is in the full tide of
successful narration. She described an acquaintance this morning
as a "meek-looking woman, but very understanding!" I
have not been writing today. I should have been called off at
any rate a good deal, so I did some hammering and housekeeping
this morning, and "box-pleated" sixteen breadths of silk ruffle
this afternoon. (I think we shall have the little lace frock. It
is not going to be a great deal of work, and is getting on
capitally.)

Fields's note

# the village dressmaker.

Notes

1882 or later: At this point, the earliest example of
Jewett referring to herself as "Pinny" in letters to Fields comes
from 1882. Olive Grant, a South Berwick dressmaker, who may
have died in January 1888. See Correspondents
and Blanchard, pp. 38-9.

[ Letterhead at left margin consisting of the initials SOJ
overlapping inside a circle ]*

My dear, this picture is delightful! You were so good to
send it and I shall often ^and often^ look at it and "keep
company." We are packed all but the last button and string
and postage stamp, and go at 10.45

[ Page 2 ]

tomorrow, pretty tired I must say but rejoicing to think of a salt
breeze and a good sized moon. We did really get to Concord
yesterday, and had a perfect visit to 'Miss Ellen{.}'* The
old house was never so beautiful to me or the green fields about
it. With love to the picture girl and boy I am their

Sarah

Notes

1882 or later: It appears Jewett is at the beginning
of a long sailing trip. She took several to Europe and into the
Caribbean between 1882 and 1900. That she speaks of "we"
being packed would tend to confirm that she will travel with
someone, typically Annie Adams Fields, sometimes with her sister,
Mary Rice Jewett. As "we" also has visited Ellen Emerson in
Concord, MA on the day before departing, this would suggest that
the sailing departure point is Boston and that this letter
precedes one of the trips to Europe: 1882, 1890, 1892, 1898, 1900.

circle: Working from a microfilm copy, this letter
appears to be on half a sheet.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Small Library,
University of Virginia, Special Collections MSS 6218, Sarah Orne
Jewett Papers. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.

SOJ to Annie Adams Fields

Monday night
[ 1882 or later ]

Dear Fuffy*

What
a dear letter came from you to night! but I am afraid this
will be a sleepy answer, since it is getting late. I wrote
until dark this afternoon, and then went out to walk in the
early moonlight, way down the street by the Academy* and even up
on the hill back of the Academy itself. There is a great
grey cloud in the west but all the rest of the sky was clear and
it was very beautiful. When one goes out of doors and
wanders about alone at such a time, how wonderfully one becomes
part of nature -- like an atom of quicksilver against a great
mass. I hardly keep my separate consciousness, but go on
and on until the mood has spent itself. I don’t know when
I have ever enjoyed the fresh air as I did Saturday. . . . . . .
. . . . .

Yours
always

Pin*

Notes

The points at the end indicate this is an incomplete
transcription.

Fuffy: A Jewett nickname for Annie Adams Fields, which
Jewett appears to have begun using in 1882, while the two were
traveling together in Europe. They began calling her
"Pinny Lawson" at about the same time.

Academy: The Berwick Academy in South Berwick, ME, from
which Jewett graduated.

Pin: A Jewett and Fields nickname for Sarah Orne
Jewett, short for Pinny Lawson.

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in
the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Folder 74, Burton
Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more information about
the individual transcription, contact the Maine Women Writers
Collection. Preparation by Linda Heller. Notes by
Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Annie Adams Fields

South Berwick

Monday night [ May after 1882 ]

Dearest Fuff

We
have had a delightful play day in York and I wished so much for
you. The clouds were lovely and the sea, and we all played
like children. Pinny* achieved a pretty house built with
damp sand and sticked little weeds about it for trees and left
the little mansion with regret, it being much admired by all
observers -- and was a great play. It was so warm that we
sat in the grass above the beach and I stretched myself at full
length and found a lot of nice blue violets next my face.
The grass had not grown there but they were, blooming away by
themselves. There were three or four old crows on the
sands and a little schooner or two out at sea and the sun kept
going behind a cloud and coming out again. I saw Cora’s*
house from a distance and it is very pretty. . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . .

Your

Pin

Notes

The points at the end indicate this is an incomplete
transcription.

Fuff: A Jewett nickname for Annie Adams Fields,
which Jewett appears to have begun using in 1882, while the two
were traveling together in Europe. They began calling her
"Pinny Lawson" at about the same time.

Cora's house: This may be Cora Clark Rice,
though her residence was in Boston. See Correspondents.

Pinny: A Jewett and Fields nickname for Sarah Orne
Jewett, short for Pinny Lawson.

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in
the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Folder 74, Burton
Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more information about
the individual transcription, contact the Maine Women Writers
Collection. Preparation by Linda Heller. Notes by
Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to "Abby" [Abby Adeline Manning]*

148 Charles St.

Thursday morning [After 1882]

Dear Abby

I look forward to the tea-party on Sunday with great pleasure.

Yours affectionately

Sarah O. Jewett

P. S. I hope that you're not going to make your little round
balls of minced meat exactly by Mrs. Masel's recipe! too
much
onion!!!!!

Notes

Abby: While there is as yet no way to achieve
certainty about the recipient's identity, the number of Jewett's
known acquaintances in Boston who were named "Abby" is
few. Therefore, a likely prospect is Abby Adeline (Addy)
Manning (1836-1906), the partner of the American sculptor, Anne Whitney.
(1821-1915). Paula Blanchard says that the couple were
early friends of Annie Fields, and later of both Fields and
Jewett (p. 215).Britannica.com
says that Whitney maintained a studio in Boston after
1876. See Manning in Correspondents.

The manuscript of this letter is in the collection of the Miller
Library of Colby College, Waterville, ME. The transcription
first appeared in Scott Federick Stoddart's Ph.D. dissertation at
the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign: Selected Letters
of Sarah Orne Jewett, copyright by Stoddart, 1988.
Annotation is by Stoddart, supplemented where appropriate by Terry
Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Annie Adams Fields

Tuesday
morning. [ Spring after 1883, probably before Whittier's
death on 7 September 1892*. ]

It seems as if two leaves for one had
suddenly come out on the trees. Yesterday afternoon I went to
the funeral of an old patient of my father on one of the old
farms -- where the neighbourhood minister preached and the old
farmhouse was crowded with people -- and then we all walked out,
two by two, across a broad green field, with old-fashioned
pall-bearers carrying the coffin by hand and changing, -- first
four would take it, and then four others who went before, just
as it must have been in England two hundred years ago. There was
such a long procession, a hundred and thirty or forty, and all
in little flocks, -- the father and mother and their big and
little children, by twos, following them, and then another
father and mother and their children. Somehow it looked quite
scriptural! and the burying-ground was a little square out in
the middle of this great field, with tall high-standing trees
shading it. The whole scene was most touching and simple and
curiously archaic. Usually the farming people have the
hearse come and do all the things that village people do.

I have been reading a really wonderful
little book by poor Richard Jefferies. I had never even heard of
it - "The Story of My Heart," he calls it, but it is really the
expression of his religious growth and aspiration toward higher
things.* He finds little in conventional, or rather formulated
religions, but everything in an eager belief in higher forms of
life and unrevealed wisdom. He comes closer to these in
out-of-door life, as one might expect who knows his other books,
but his ability to put into words the consciousness of life and
individuality and relationship to eternity is something amazing.
I have never known anything just like it. I thought of "thy
friend"# as I read it, and of "Phantastes,"* which I haven't
read since I was growing up. There is a queer touch of Tolstoi's
creeds now and then. This copy was printed in '83, -- how
strange that I never knew anything of it!

Tonight I saw the dear little new moon
through the elm boughs; and have read part of one of Hawthorne's
American Journal volumes but didn't care for it as much as I
used to. On the contrary, I found the "Rambles about Portsmouth"
a mine of wealth. One description of the marketwomen coming down
the river, their quaintness and picturesqueness at once seem to
be so great, and the mere hints of description so full of
flavor, that it all gave me much keener pleasure than anything I
found in the other much more famous book. This seems like high
literary treason, but you wait and see. This was a volume of
Hawthorne's younger journals, a conscious effort after material
and some lovely enough notes of his walks and suggestions for
sketches; but these last lack any reality or imagination,
rootless little things that could never open seed in their turn,
or make much of any soil they were put into, so "delicate" in
their fancy as to be far-fetched and oddly feeble and
sophomorish. You will find it hard to believe this without the
pages before you as I have just had them. But oh! such material
as I lit upon in the other book! one page flashes into my mind
now as 'live as Kipling and as full of fresh air, and all the
touches of brave fancy and quiet pathos. Let an old fellow like
Brewster keep at it as he did, and he quietly brings you a ruby
and a diamond, picked right up in a Portsmouth street.* Such
genuine books always live, they get filled so full of life: it's
neither Boswell nor Johnson* who can take the credit, but the Life
on the pages.*

"Too useful to be lonely and too busy to be sad."

That is the most lovely thing that Miss Phelps ever said or
wrote.*

Fields's note

#Whittier.

Notes

1902: This letter clearly consists of passages
gathered from various letters of various dates. As indicated
below, one paragraph probably comes from December of 1893.
poor Richard Jefferies. ... "The Story of My Heart": Richard
Jefferies (1848-1887) was an English writer and naturalist, best
remembered for his nature writing. The Story of My Heart
(1883), perhaps his most famous work, caused some scandal upon its
publication; it is a spiritual autobiography that tells of his
growth into a kind of transcendentalism that rejects traditional
Christianity.

"thy friend" ... and of "Phantastes": "Thy friend" is
John Greenleaf Whittier, the Quaker poet. Phantastes: A
Faery Romance for Men and Women (1858) is by the Scot,
George MacDonald (1824-1905).

one of Hawthorne's American Journal volumes ... "Rambles
about Portsmouth" ... Brewster: Nathaniel Hawthorne's
(1804-1864) American Note Books appeared in several
editions and forms beginning in 1868. Charles Warren Brewster's
(1802-1868) Rambles about Portsmouth: Sketches of Persons,
Localities, and Incidents of Two Centuries: Principally from
Tradition and Unpublished Documents appeared in 1859
(First Series) and 1869 (Second Series). The account of
the market women is in "Second Series," Ramble 132. Jewett drew
upon this description in Chapter 7 of The Tory Lover.

Boswell nor Johnson: James Boswell (1740-1795) published
The Life of Samuel Johnson in 1791. Samuel Johnson
(1709-1784) was one of the most prominent English literary
figures of the eighteenth century.

"Too useful to be lonely and too busy to be sad." ... Miss
Phelps: Elizabeth Stuart Phelps (1844-1911) was the author
of Dr. Zay, a novel about an aspiring woman doctor, like
Jewett's A Country Doctor. She probably was best known for
her Spiritualist novel, The Gates Ajar. On-line searches
for this quotation show it being repeated often soon after the
publication of this letter, which suggests that few readers had
seen it before 1911. Perhaps Phelps spoke this to Jewett or
wrote it in a letter to her?

pages: This paragraph appears in a letter to Fields
tentatively dated December 1893.

My dear Friend, your letter has followed me to Manchester so I am
a day late in answering. No, it is the 5th that I go
to the Parkmans,* and Wednesday the 10th (?) that I
come to you if you still find it convenient. I am looking
forward to seeing you with the greatest pleasure -- and I am

[ Page 2 ]

getting such a sense of adventure ahead, that you may find some
morning ^that^ your schooner has slipped her moorings and I have
sailed away a Bold Pirate!

-- Mrs. Fields* sends her most affectionate
remembrance to you. I just came over for two or three days
as I found she was to be alone and I

[ Page 3 ]

should not have the chance again for some time. Rose Lamb*
was to be here just now, but she has not been well and had to give
up a visit here and one to Mrs Winthrop --*

No more letter now -- but wont we talk about
things when I am there! I had a delightful little visit to
Helen Merriman* after my week with Miss Wormeley*

[ Page 4 ]

which was delightful too. The difficulty will be in ever
settling down again after such excitements but it is very
pleasant, after my last four years to enjoy so much.

Yours always with love to all three

S. O. J.

Notes

SOJ to ?: The recipient of this letter is not
indicated. If Jewett speaks literally of a schooner she may
pirate, then perhaps her recipient is Celia Thaxter, who used a
schooner to move between Portsmouth, NH and her residence on
Appledore in Isles of the Shoals. If she is not speaking
literally and actually referring to a yacht owned by her
recipient, then she may be writing to Mrs. John M. Forbes, on
whose family yacht, the Merlin, Jewett was a frequent
guest after 1903. Also in her later years, she was a regular
guest of Sarah Cabot Wheelwright in her family yacht, the Hesper.

Summer after 1883: Without knowledge of either the
date or the recipient, working out the other is more
difficult. This letter must have been composed after Jewett
and Fields's summer 1882 trip to Europe.

Mrs Winthrop: Jewett was
acquainted with Cornelia Adeline "Adele" Granger (1819/20 - 16
June 1892), widow of John Eliot Thayer (1803-1857), who was the
third wife of Robert Charles Winthrop, an American lawyer,
politician, and philanthropist. Representing Massachusetts,
he was Speaker of the House of Representatives, 1847-49. Her
parents were the politician Francis Granger and Cornelia Rutson
Van Rensselaer. See also Wikipedia.
However, it is possible that this letter was
composed after the death of Cornelia Winthrop, in which case, Mrs.
Winthrop may be the wife of Robert Charles Winthrop, Jr. (1834-1905),
Elizabeth Mason Winthrop (1844-1924).

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Small Library,
University of Virginia, Special Collections MSS 6218, Sarah Orne
Jewett Papers. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.

SOJ to Mary Rice Jewett

[SundayAfter 1883 ]*

Louisa* was here yesterday but I was out. -- I met
Miss Baker in front of the State House* yesterday and she
thought for some time that I was you and speaked on that
affectionate basis, and then discovered of a sudden that I was I
and had to begin all over again holding fast my hand all
through -- so that I saw her some time in both
capacities!

Notes

SundayAfter 1883: This surmise arises
from Blanchard indicating that the Jewetts first began to know
Charlotte Alice Baker in 1883.
Handwritten notes with this transcription
read: [to Mary] [Sunday]

Miss Baker ... State House: Miss Baker may be the
American historian, Charlotte Alice Baker (1833-1909). According
to Paula Blanchard in Sarah Orne Jewett (2002), the
Jewett's became close to Baker and to the artist Susan Minot
Lane (1832-1893) during the mid-1880s.

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in the
Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Folder 72, Burton
Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more information about the
individual transcription, contact the Maine Women Writers
Collection. Preparation by Linda Heller. Notes by
Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Louisa Loring Dresel

[ 1884 or later ]*

Dear Loulie

Thursday shall be the day if you still wish,
and I shall try to be prompt at one o'clock --

Yours affectionately

S. O. J.

Tuesday

Notes

1884 or later: As of this writing, the earliest
letter of Jewett to Dresel is dated in 1884.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Columbia University
(New York) Library in Special Collections, Jewett.
Transcription from a microfilm copy and annotation by Terry
Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Louisa Dresel

Wednesday morning
[ 1884 or later ]*

[ Begin letterhead ]

148 Charles Street
Boston.

[ End letterhead ]

Dear Loulie

I think it will have to be next time! for I
haven't an afternoon to my back and I must go home on Friday
morning.

Yours affectionately

S.O.J.

( In haste! )

Notes

1884 or later: As of this writing, the earliest letter of
Jewett to Dresel is dated in 1884.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Columbia University
(New York) Library in Special Collections, Jewett.
Transcription from a microfilm copy and annotation by Terry
Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Louisa Dresel

148 Charles St.
[ 1884 or later ]*

Dear Loulie

I return "the other sketch" with many thanks
for its company since Christmas but I love the new one and thank
you for it twice over and over. A. F.* likes it so much
too. I was sorry to miss you yesterday and now I am going
home tomorrow but only for

[ Page 2 ]

a week or so. I had a very nice time in Newport but I am
pretty lame this day and so you must forgive my bad writing also a
short note --

With love to Mrs. Dresel*

Yours ever affectionately

S. O. J.

[ Page 3 ]

I am so glad to have seen the sketches the other day --

Notes

1884 or later: As of this writing, the earliest letter of
Jewett to Dresel is dated in 1884.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Columbia University
(New York) Library in Special Collections, Jewett.
Transcription from a microfilm copy and annotation by Terry
Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Louisa Loring Dresel

Friday
[ 1884 or later ]*

[ Begin letterhead ]

South Berwick, Maine

[ End letterhead ]

Dear Loulie

Thank you so much for your note and the kindest
of messages from 'Mamma' -- I am afraid that we cannot come for
the little visit because we have promised to go to the mountains
for two or three days -- and must leave Mrs. Cabot's Thursday

[ Page 2 ]

to go there from here on Friday. But the luncheon would be
delightful and you can ask Mrs. Cabot and ^to^
set the day for us -- I believe that she has planned something for
Wednesday the day before we leave, but we have not made any
engagements, at least I have not.

And you must come and call

[ Page 3 ]

very early! -- I have to write this in a hurry to catch the
morning mail but I shall save the rest of my letter to talk about
next week.

With love and thanks

S. O. J.

Notes

1884 or later: As of this writing, the earliest letter of
Jewett to Dresel is dated in 1884.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Columbia University
(New York) Library in Special Collections, Jewett.
Transcription from a microfilm copy and annotation by Terry
Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Louisa Loring Dresel

South Berwick
Thursday --
[ 1884 or later ]*

Dear Loulie

I have been spending two days in Exeter and
when I came home last night I found your dear sketch which
I like very much -- oh very much, and I like the little
note on the pasteboard cover, and I think that I can 'tell' you
better when I see you than I can in a letter [ two deleted
words ]

[ Page 2 ]

[ deleted word ]

Somehow eyes that are very poor for reading and
writing, take great pleasure in pictures. I dont know when I
have enjoyed ours so much as in these winter days when I have
often sat idly in my chair. But dear friend you are always
so thoughtful, and such

[ Page 3 ]

a friend to my little and great pleasures! A.F.* and I
sometimes turn thoughtful into thinkful, which has a
meaning that will please you when you come to think of it! I
mean true sentiment when I say that the little picture indeed is a
new window set open. I shall not forget to look out of
it. You must tell

[ Page 4 ]

me still more about the place when I see you again. That
will be next week. I h;pe to go to town Tuesday or Wednesday
--

Yours with a great deal of love.

S. O. J.

Notes

1884 or later: As of this writing, the earliest
letter of Jewett to Dresel is dated in 1884.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Columbia University
(New York) Library in Special Collections, Jewett.
Transcription from a microfilm copy and annotation by Terry
Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Annie Adams Fields

Thursday morning
[After 1884]

Dearest Fuff*

I am so distracted by a charming three of Italian musicians who
now play Santa Lucia* under my window that I have doubts about
this letter's turning out very well as to hard facts. (Now
they go into another air which starts me up the grand canal so
that I suppose I must have heard it there!) They are
gathering an idle crowd out of the village and I must
-- in fact I have descended, and ascertained the
fact that Napoli was their home and we have bowed many times and
been as polite as we know how in our best moments. They
now play The Anvil Chorus* with a bent pin some where in a
fiddle string, perhaps for the family seems [illegible] of over
generosity!! but what a funny bit of gayety they bring
into a sober New England village. Deacon Litchfield of the
Baptist Church* stands in his shop door with his foot twitching
in his big shoe as if it might dance any minute.

After 1884: Jewett wrote another letter to Annie
Fields, tentatively dated in April 1884, in which she describes
almost identical events. It seems unlikely that she wrote
both letters in the same year. Probably this letter was
written at a later date.
The ellipsis in the transcription indicates
that this is a selection from the manuscript.

Santa Lucia: According to Wikipedia, this is a traditional
Neapolitan song: "The original lyrics ... celebrate the
picturesque waterfront district, Borgo Santa Lucia, in the Bay
of Naples, in the invitation of a boatman to take a turn in his
boat, to better enjoy the cool of the evening."

Deacon Litchfield of the Baptist Church: Deacon
Litchfield has not been identified. Assistance is welcome.

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in the
Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Folder 72, Burton
Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more information about the
individual transcription, contact the Maine Women Writers
Collection. Preparation by Linda Heller. Notes by
Terry Heller, Coe College.SOJ to Nancy Manning Houghton*

[ Probably after 1885 ]*

Dear Mrs. Houghton

Mrs. Fields and I were very sorry to miss your
pleasant reception on Thursday evening and I am sorry to be so
late in writing about it. The truth is that the last one of
my succession of illnesses seems more provoking than my earlier
ones,

[ Page 2 ]

but I hope soon to be quite well again and able to do what I
please.

I envy you your pleasure in having Miss Murfree
and Miss Mary Murfree* for your guests{.} Please give them
my kindest remembrance.

I thought of you very often while you were on
your Southern

[ Page 3 ]

journey and I hope it was as pleasant as I fancied it all the
time.

Yours sincerely

Sarah O. Jewett.

148 Charles St
Monday --

Notes

after 1885: According to Wikipedia, Mary N. Murfree
first revealed to Thomas Bailey Aldrich at Atlantic that
she was Charles Egbert Craddock in 1885. It would seem,
therefore, that any reception for her and her sister would have to
occur after that date.

Miss Murfree and Miss Mary Murfree: Fanny Noailles
Dickenson Murfree (1846-1941) was the American author of Felicia
(1891), a novel that began in July 1890 in The Atlantic.
Her younger sister, Mary Noailles Murfree (1850-1922), published
under the name, Charles Egbert Craddock.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Small Library,
University of Virginia, Special Collections MSS 6218, Sarah Orne
Jewett Papers. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.

SOJ to Annie Adams Fields Thursday morning. [1885 -
1889]

I mourn for poor Crabby -- poor little
dog! I hate to think we shall never see him again. I never liked
him so much as I have this summer, in his amiable and patient
age. However, I had worried much about what should come next
when he was blinder and feebler, and it is good to think that
his days are done so comfortably. I am sure all the girls felt
sorry as we do.

It is a grey day and looks like a cold
rain, but John and Theodore, like "Benjy" and "Tom Brown," have
gone to the Rochester fair, with smiles on their faces that
seemed to tie behind and be quite visible as they walked away!*

I have been reading "Miss Angel." It
is a most lovely historical story. If you haven't got it, I want
to send my little Tauchnitz one. Venice is so exquisitely drawn
in it, and afterward in London, all the life of that day. Dr.
Johnson comes along the street as if one's own eyes saw him. I
think you have got "Miss Angel," but perhaps you can't put a
hand on it.

I took down the two Choate volumes,#
yesterday, and read with unforgettable delight, -- not that it
was new altogether, but somehow new then.

Fields's note

#The biography of Rufus Choate.*

Notes

poor Crabby: F. O. Matthiessen in Sarah
Orne
Jewett (1909) identifies Crabby as one of Jewett's
dogs, and he describes her walking with Crabby, when he already
is an elderly dog, before her father's death (20 September
1878). Yet, Theodore, her nephew, was born in 1879 and,
presumably, would have to be older than 5 or 6 to go off to the
fair with John Tucker. In the opening of Tom Brown's
School Days, Tom is about 10 years old.

John and Theodore, like "Benjy" and "Tom Brown," have gone
to the Rochester fair: John Tucker, Jewett family
employee, and Theodore "Stubby" Eastman, Jewett's nephew.
See Correspondents.
Thomas Hughes (1822-1896) was the author of Tom
Brown's
School Days (1857).
The reference to Benjy is mysterious. Juliana
Horatia
Gatty Ewing (1841-1885) wrote a popular children's story,
Benjy in Beastland, apparently first published in Aunt
Judy's
Magazine 8 (1870). Thereafter it was
frequently reprinted in collections of children's stories.

"Miss Angel" .. Tauchnitz one ... Dr. Johnson: Samuel
Johnson (1709-1784) was a prolific and multi-talented English
writer and lexicographer, known for his witty conversation. Miss
Angel by Anne Thackeray, Lady Ritchie (1837-1919) appeared
in a Tauchnitz edition from Leipzig in 1875. In The Atlantic
(April 1882: 563-4) is an appreciative essay on the history of
Tauchnitz editions, high quality inexpensive reprints of English
and American literary works usually published in partnership with
their authors, but free of copyright restrictions.

The biography of Rufus Choate: a two volume book on
Rufus Choate (1799-1859) is The works of Rufus Choate: with
a memoir of his life (1862).

I am sincerely sorry that you have been ill and
that you should have had to go out after the story when I am
afraid you were not fit to do so. I did not have 'The
Syndicates' *address at hand -- and with us the postman always
brings

[ Page 2 ]

a registered parcel -- at least I cannot remember having to take
so much trouble as I fear I have given you.

I hope that you will soon be well -- for I know
that ones eyes do not get back their freedom easily --

Yours very truly

S. O. Jewett

Notes

Between 1885 and 1897: As indicated below, Jewett's
correspondence with Stedman is known to have taken place between
1885 and 1897.

the story ... 'The Syndicates': Lacking a definitive
date for this letter, the story cannot be identified. Jewett
corresponded with Arthur Stedman about contributions to the Bacheller Syndicate from its beginning in
1885 through at least 1897.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Columbia University
(New York) Library in Special Collections, Jewett.
Transcription from a microfilm copy and annotation by Terry
Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Arthur Griffin Stedman

[Between 1885 and 1897]*

Dear Mr. Stedman

I am so glad that you like the little story{,}*

In haste with sincere regard

S. O. Jewett

South Berwick
[26 ? ] September

Notes

Between 1885 and 1897: Jewett's correspondence with
Stedman is known to have taken place between 1885 and 1897.

little story: Lacking a definitive date for this letter,
the story cannot be identified.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Columbia University
(New York) Library in Special Collections, Jewett.
Transcription from a microfilm copy and annotation by Terry
Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Isabella Stewart Gardner

12th October [ 1887 or after ]

[ Begin letterhead ]

South Berwick.
Maine.

[ End letterhead ]

Dear MrsGardner

I have been trying to discover some box* for
you, and I hasten to tell you at last that there was an old garden
in Hampton (New Hampshire on the Eastern railroad) which had some
very good large plants seen not long

[ Page 2 ]

ago in excellent order. "The Old Toppan Place"* was
quite deserted and falling to pieces, so that it seems to me
you would have little trouble in getting anything from the
tangled garden. My sister* saw it last summer in driving
from Rye,* but I know

[ Page 3 ]

well how such old places are left untouched for years
together. I think if you should write to the postmaster
to ask the name of the owner of the Toppan place that you
could easily find out about it -- or you ^could^ send one of
your men down -- it is not far from the station.

I had a delightful day with you. You
do not

[ Page 4 ]

know how many times I have thought of your garden and of all
my pleasure in it.

With best thanks I am every yours most
sincerely

Sarah O. Jewett

Notes

1887 or after: Shana McKenna, archivist at the
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, believes that Jewett
speaks of developing the extensive formal gardens Gardner
established at her summer home, Green Hill, the Brookline, MA
estate her husband inherited in 1884. The earliest likely
date for this letter would be 1887, which is currently the
earliest year in which Jewett and Gardner are believed to have
been acquainted. Jewett's friend, Louisa Dresel (See
Correspondents), photographed the house and grounds of Green
Hill between 1890 and 1905.

box: evergreen shrubs of the genusBuxus,
sometimes used for hedges in the United States.

The Old Toppan Place: This location has not been
identified. Assistance is welcome.

I have been writing Marigold* today and telling her we are
going. What rainsome weather it is nowadays though I did
get quite a walk up the street and was chased by a shower and
felt so much better for it -- just before dark.
John* hovered about the house this morning after giving
delightful hints about the high surf that must be beating the
Wells shore, and the cliff but I was afraid to risk the dampness
and at last consoled him by saying that we had seen it splashing
over the Cliff* as high as ever it went and we smiled together
and contented ourselves with reminiscences . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . .

Your own

S. O. J.

Notes

1887 or after: As of this writing, the earliest known
instance of Jewett using the nickname "Marigold" for Mary
Greenwood Lodge occurs in 1887.
The ellipses in the transcription indicate
that this is a selection from the manuscript.

the Cliff: York Harbor, ME is known in part for "The
Cliff Walk ...an ancient shoreline path lined with beach roses,
[that] winds along Eastern Point ledges above the surf."
The surrounding area has long included summer residences.

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in the
Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Folder 72, Burton
Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more information about the
individual transcription, contact the Maine Women Writers
Collection. Preparation by Linda Heller. Notes by
Terry Heller, Coe College.SOJ to Mary Rice Jewett

Wednesday night

[ 1887 or after ]

Dear Mary

………I
think that D. Merriman D. D.* had better make a sermon on one of
the ten commandments saying that we mustn't work, but never saying
that we mustn't play. I do believe myself that judging from
both the Old Testament and the New that we have got Sunday all
wrong!

Notes

The line of points presumably indicates an omission from the
manuscript.

1887 or after: The earliest mention of the Merrimans
in Jewett's letters appears to be 1887.

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in the
Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Undated Letters, Folder
75, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more
information about the individual transcription, contact the Maine
Women Writers Collection. Notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Samuel Wesley Marvin

148 Charles St
2nd April. [Between 1886 and 1897]

Dear Mr. Marvin

How much trouble you have taken for me! --
I am not going to be tempted by the Atlantic -- to tell the
truth I care a great deal more for the original gold and white
cover, in this case, than for the best binding of any other
sort.

Mrs. Fields had it once and was foolish enough to let it be
used up at the press in making a new American edition and I have
heard her lament the loss of it, and so I thought it would be a
jolly bit of a surprise to hunt up another copy and leave it on
one of the shelves to be discovered.* -- I think $15 is all the
price I ought to put on my enjoyment, and I beg you not to hunt
for the book, only if a copy comes in your way at anytime I
should like to have it -- You see I am beginning to catch the
"first edition" fever alittle [so transcribed]
-- from being in this well-stocked house I suppose!
-- I am going southward for a while for I have been ill (and
half well) for ever so many weeks, and I hope to be able
to spend a few days in New York on my way home.* I like to
hear about Miss Eleanor (Marvin)* and I should like better to
see her --

Yor Sincerely [so transcribed]

SOJewett [so transcribed]

Notes

Between 1886 and 1897: See notes below for
evidence that this letter probably was composed within this
period.

discovered: Though it is impossible to identify
the book's title, the gesture does show an interesting facet to
the Jewett-Fields relationship. Jewett is likely
consulting Marvin because of his association with the Grolier
Club and his resulting access to fine book catalogs.

southward for a while: To date, there is only one
record of a trip south undertaken by Jewett for her own health,
when she and Fields traveled to St. Augustine, Fl arriving in
February 1890. Unfortunately, the dates of that trip do
not match well with the April date of this letter. Other
documented, health related trips to less distant places, but in
a generally southward direction include:

The manuscript of this letter is in the collection of the
Miller Library of Colby College, Waterville, ME. The
transcription first appeared in Scott Federick Stoddart's Ph.D.
dissertation at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign: Selected
Letters
of Sarah Orne Jewett, copyright by Stoddart, 1988.
Annotation is by Stoddart, supplemented where appropriate by Terry
Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Mary Rice Jewett

[ 1888 or later ]

I went to Mrs. Cabot’s* to dinner yesterday and we settled
almost everybody down hard, and if they had been flies on the
wall they would have known very well what to think of
themselves. Then I went to see about the green curtains
for the Library and found a nice little man who remembered all
about the others and he is coming down Monday morning next so we
must remember about telling Rose* when I get home.

Notes

1888 or later: A handwritten note on this transcription
reads: To Mary Thursday evening This guess at the date is
based on the probability that the Jewett sisters are decorating
their home after the death of their uncle William Durham Jewett
in 1887. Renovations on the house were under way in the
spring of 1888, while Jewett was traveling in the south.
However, curtains for the library could have been bought at any
time from 1888 on.

curtains for the Library ... Rose: The Jewetts may be
purchasing curtains for the library in their home, but this is
not yet certain, nor has Rose been identified. Assistance
is welcome.

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in the
Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Folder 73, Burton
Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more information about the
individual transcription, contact the Maine Women Writers
Collection. Preparation by Linda Heller. Notes by
Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Katharine and Louisa Loring
[ After Christmas, 1888 or later ]*

148 Charles Street
Wednesday

My dear Katharine and Louisa

Your dear presents came
straight to my heart and I thank you both very much. I
thought of you, too, though I gave no sign of it -- When I
came to town a few days before Christmas I was full of Plans
but it was a joggling car ^that brought me^ and set the pain
in this old head going and I meekly retired to bed . . .
All right now, thank you! (though more or less damaged as a
general thing) and wondering

[ Page 2 ]

if you wont be coming to town some day so that I can see
you. Neither Mrs. Fields* nor I can remember or
guess just who Louisa's lovely French Diana is and
familiar as she is already -- and seemed to be at first
glance -- we dont know her proud name. I like her very
much. And dear K's letter case is what I like.
I 'find' this as our French friends say, a great beauty --
it somehow goes with my best purse and I should like to
see them together ----

[ Page 3 ]

I hope you had a happy Christmas but
you did because you made one. -- I thought many times of
you with the sea and the winter woods, and I could believe
-- almost -- that I was walking along the avenue to see
you and hearing ^the noise of^ the brook now and then in
the stillness.

Many a day I think of you both and send
you my love and blessing, dear friends!

Yours most affectionately
Sarah ---------------

[ Page 4 ]

Mrs. Fields sends her love too and asks me to tell you
how pleased she is with the cover for her dressing
table. She took a great liking to it and
loved to have you remember her --

Notes

After Christmas, 1888 or later: This
letter offers little information for determining its
date. We know from SOJ to Mary Rice Jewett, St.
Augustine, Monday [March 4, 1888], that Jewett and
Fields became acquainted with the Loring sisters and
their father while traveling in Florida and South
Carolina in March of 1888. However, they may
have met earlier.

The manuscript of this letter is held in the Manuscript File --
Sarah Orne Jewett, at the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center
of Boston University. Transcription and annotation by Terry
Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Carrie Jewett Eastman

Friday afternoon
[ 1888-1896 ]*

Dear Carrie

I found your two beloved lettys here and also
one from S.W.* and one from Katy Coolidge* wanting me to come
down. I had a lovely day yesterday down about Plum Island*
-- we were gone all day long and the skipper made a chowder! which
took place at the far end of Plum Island over toward Ipswich, a
picturesque little old place call The Bluffs.* I wonder if
you were ever there [deletion perhaps a blotted question mark
] but I dont remember your sailing while you were at Plum Island.

[ Page 2 ]

I asked Mary* to send you the letter I have just written her,
though it is but a poor letty. I am sort of tired and sleepy
in the salt air and have got to get a nap! I am so glad that
Mary is having such a nice time. I know Mr. Rice* will get
on: artists always can! and you and Theodore will perhaps like to
take note of his sketches -- it is such fun to see anyone work.
------------- especially if you know the place & subject
well. I haven't heard anything of Mrs. Black, but Mrs.
Cabot's* lilies were all right. It was a great
disappointment to Mrs. Fields* like a little girl! but we thought
the sun may have got at that box in the

[ Page 3 ]

express car and not the others. I saw them all shut up and
much mourned! Mr. & Mrs. Trimble* who are at Mrs. Cabots
came down yesterday but of course we were away. It is lovely
to get back this afternoon. [two deleted words ] I wish you
were here. The letter I wrote Mary has [ seeds?
] in it.

I send you this nice & pleasing letter from
Hetta Ward* which you can send on to Mary. I had got her
envelope sealed up when this came. Oh Carrie, dont you think
we had three quarters of an hour for [Almys ?] in Salem

[ Page 4 ]

between trains and we were playing chooses* outside the
window for some time and dallying before we started to go and when
we got to the store door it was locked and it said Closed on
Friday afternoons! It was very trying. There
were some little gray soup bowls ^in the windows^ with covers
Carrie, & a green edge -- but we dont know how much
they cost. Should you like some if they are both
pretty and cheap? Love to Susan and Frances. & Mrs.
Fields sends love

Yours Seddie*

Notes

1888-1896: This range of dates is based upon other
letters in which Jewett signs herself "Seddie" and that mention
the Black and Trimble families.

Mr. Rice: Though Jewett has friends and relatives named
"Rice," it seems clear that this Mr. Rice is a painter. A likely
candidate is the Boston watercolorist, Henry Webster Rice (1853-1934).

Mrs. Black ... Mrs. Cabots: For Susan Burley Cabot,
see Correspondents.
Mrs. Black probably is Mary E. Peters Black (1816-1902). Her
son, George Nixon Black, Jr. (1842-1928). The son was a
prominent philanthropist and the builder of Kragsyde
(1883–85, demolished 1929), "a Shingle Style mansion designed by
the Boston architectural firm of Peabody & Stearns and built
at Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts, with landscaping by
the Olmsted firm.

Mr. & Mrs. Trimble: This family remains
unidentified, though their name appears in several Jewett
letters. Prominent New York Trimbles of Mrs. Cabot's
generation would be the banking family of Merritt Trimble
(1824-1903) and Mary Sutton Underhill (1826-1908). Their son
was Walter Underhill Trimble (1857- 8 September 1926).
However, as yet, no connection between them and Mrs. Cabot has
been found.

Hetta Ward: Sister of Susan Hayes Ward and William
Hayes Ward. See Correspondents.

Almy's: Almy, Bigelow & Washburn was a
department store with buildings in Salem, Beverly and Gloucester,
MA, founded by James F. Almy in 1858.

playing chooses: These words are lightly
underlined, and it is unclear whether this was Jewett's
intention. Though it is difficult to be certain, the
best-known game of "Chooses" also is known as Odds & Evens, in which each of a pair of
players chooses even or odd. Then each simultaneously holds
up 1 or 2 fingers. The winner is determined by whether the
total number of fingers is even or odd.

Susan and Frances: Susan may be Susan Marcia Oakes
Woodbury, and Frances is likely to be cousin Frances Fisk Perry,
daughter of Lucretia Morse Fisk Perry. See Correspondents.

The manuscript of this letter is held by Historic New England in
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett to Caroline Augusta Jewett Eastman,
Jewett Family Papers: MS014.01.01.04. Transcribed and
annotated by Terry Heller. Coe College.

SOJ to Louisa Loring Dresel

148 [Charles street]
Thursday [Between 1888 and 1904]

Dear Loulie

I wonder if you have got home yet? I am afraid I shall miss
seeing you after all for I must go home tomorrow but I shall
very soon bee becoming [so transcribed]
down again -- I may say of the buttons that they shine so in the
skies of my imagination that I easily mistake them for planets.
To day is the day of Mrs. Whitman's fair.* How I wish I could
see you coming in! I shall be there until early afternoon
and again this evening.

With love
S. O. J.

I had such a nice time with Ellis* the other day!

Notes

1904: Correspondence between Dresel and Jewett
seems to begin in 1888 and continues until Jewett's death.
Mrs. Whitman died in 1904.

Mrs. Whitman's fair: Sarah Wyman Whitman; See Correspondents.
Whitman was very active in her church and in volunteer community
service, which included organizing fund-raising fairs.

The manuscript of this letter is in the collection of the Miller
Library of Colby College, Waterville, ME. The transcription
first appeared in Scott Federick Stoddart's Ph.D. dissertation at
the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign: Selected Letters
of Sarah Orne Jewett, copyright by Stoddart, 1988.
Annotation is by Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Louisa Loring Dresel

Sunday afternoon [Winterbetween 1888 and 1909]

Dear Loulie

I started out this afternoon to go down to see you but I did
not feel quite well enough to stay "out and about" so long and
had to come home again. I begin to think that the grippe
must be going to assail me annually! I have felt like a second
edition of it lately -- and the little snow storm also proved
unkind -- I am going away tomorrow for the night, but I shall
hope to see you when I come back, I was very sorry to miss you
yesterday.

Yours affectionately

S. O. J.

Notes

1909: Correspondence between Dresel and
Jewett seems to begin in 1888 and continues until Jewett's
death.

The manuscript of this letter is in the collection of the Miller
Library of Colby College, Waterville, ME. The transcription
first appeared in Scott Federick Stoddart's Ph.D. dissertation at
the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign: Selected Letters
of Sarah Orne Jewett, copyright by Stoddart, 1988.
Annotation is by Stoddart, supplemented where appropriate by Terry
Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Annie Adams Fields

Tuesday morning, [1890 or after]*

What do you think I am reading but
"Middlemarch," though I confess that I have to make skips often.
How much more she dwells and harps than in "Adam Bede" and
"Silas Marner."* She draws her characters so that they stand
alive before you, and you know what they have in their pockets,
and then goes on for three pages analyzing them and their
motives; but after all one must read them with patience for the
sake of occasional golden sentences, that have the exactness and
inevitableness of proverbs. Perhaps I read my "Middlemarch" too
late in the evening, but I find very dull stretches in it now
and then. But think of Mr. Casaubon being but forty-five at the
time of his marriage! I think of him as nearly seventy and old
for his years at that, and indeed be must have been growing old
since he was born, and never have had a season of merely
ripening. It is a wonderfully drawn character to me, the pathos
and reality of it. How I should like to go on talking about it.

What do you think I am reading with
deepest interest but Mahan's "Influence of Sea Power on
History,"* which is perfectly delightful! I don't know whether
you would care much about it, though it is not too technical and
nautical, but rather historical. One thing is so nice, about the
fleets that are attacked having the best chance (according to
the French). They stay in their places while the enemy comes at
them, but wastes power in coming, and then, the principle
holding good from the days of galleys until now, the attacked
fleet has kept its power in reserve and its men fresh to resist.
You get so interested before you know it. I have been interested
in what I saw about the book for a long time, and I find it a
great pleasure to have it. The use of English words is so fresh
and good and the whole tone so manly and sailor-like.

Well, I mustn't write about folkses
this busy morning, but tell important tales about my walking up
the garden yesterday afternoon, and hearing a great buzz-buzzing
over among the apple trees, and seeing the whole air brown with
a swarm of bees, and rushing for one of the old hives and trying
to take them; but off they went, leaving part of their company
about some comb which they had fastened on a bough of a tree, a
thing I never saw before. Minnie, who is an experienced country
person from Bantry Bay, as we have long known, came out ringing
a bell as if she were one of those who took the bees in that
pretty "Georgic" of Virgil.* There never was anything simpler or
prettier. We got the remainder bees and their pieces of white
new comb into the hive, and there they are, I suppose, in all
the rain. I coveted the big swarm that went away. It was such a
pretty, lucky thing to go out and find them.

Notes

1890 or after: This is a composite letter, drawing
upon several others, some of which have been located in
manuscript and dated. These will be found in their proper
places.

Mahan's "Influence of Sea Power on History": Alfred
Thayer Mahan (1840-1914) was a distinguished American naval
officer and historian. The Influence of Sea Power upon
History, 1660-1783, was published in 1890.
It is possible Jewett is reading in
preparation for her work on The Tory Lover, which
includes naval engagements during the American Revolution.

Minnie: The Trafton Collection transcription of
the final paragraph (see below) adds the information that Minnie
is an employee in Carrie Eastman's household. More
information is welcome.

that pretty "Georgic" of Virgil: At about line 64 of Book 4
of The Georgics, Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro, 70-19 BC)
recommends the prospective beekeeper to "raise a noise / Of
tinkling all around, and shake the Cymbals / Of the Mighty Mother"
in order to call a swarm of bees to a new hive.

The Trafton collection includes a transcription
of the final paragraph of this letter; this varies in many details
from the Fields transcription. His transcription reads:

Well, I mustn’t write about folks in this busy
morning, but tell important tales about my walking up the garden
yesterday afternoon and hearing a great buzz-buzzing over among
the apple trees and seeing the whole air brown with a swarm of
bees, and rushing for one of the old hives and trying to take
them, but off they went leaving part of their company about some
comb which they had fastened on a bough of a tree, a thing I
never saw before. Carrie's Minnie who is an experienced
country person from Bantry Bay as we have long known! came out
ringing a bell as if she were one of those who took the bees in
that pretty "Georgic of Virgil". There never was anything
simpler or prettier . We got the remainder bees and their pieces
of white new comb in to the hive and there they are I suppose in
all the rain. I coveted the big swarm that went
away! It was such a pretty lucky thing to go out and find
them.

But as for Brother Robert* we must be having other
privileges. You never heard anything so dear as he was after
I came yesterday -- telling A. F.* all over again about going to
Berwick last summer. "They put on the beautiful old
blue china" he said -- "all their beautiful things; they
didn't say to themselves 'Oh its only old Robert Collyer and
his folk' -- no, they had everything
beautiful!" "Best they'd got", I said, and he gave one of
his funny laughs, but he did speak with such feeling
Mary. I was all of a choke so we couldn't continue the
conversation.

Notes

Probably after 1890: Robert Collyer first appears in
a Jewett letter in 1890.
Brother Robert: Dr. Robert Collyer. See Correspondents. It is not yet known in
what year he visited South Berwick.

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in the
Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Undated Letters, Folder
75, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more
information about the individual transcription, contact the Maine
Women Writers Collection. Notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Mary Rice Jewett

Wednesday

[ 1890s before 1896 ]

Dear Mary

We are going to the funeral* now and how hard it does
rain! a real north easter, when yesterday was such a lovely
day. I was hard at work writing until afternoon when we
went to walk and met Mrs. Bell and Mrs. Pratt* who had much to
say. I meant to write you a good long letter in the
evening but I got reading by the fire and forgot it and then
went off to bed early.

I have got a long list of things to do in town but it is so
wet that I dont know how are I shall get along. Mrs.
Fields is going to Chardon St.* The corduroy is 27 inches
wide -- cant you measure somewhere near allowing a good bit over
for new arms and a cushion? It isnt likely we can match it
easily. Please let me know as soon as you can. This
is but a poor letty but it is an early morning.

Much love from

Sister

Notes

1890s before 1896: A handwritten note on
this transcription reads:189-? Though the rationale for
this guess is not known, to date there are no references to Mrs.
Ellerton Pratt in Jewett's letters before 1888; Pratt died in
1896.

funeral: It is not yet known to which funeral Jewett
refers.

Mrs. Bell and Mrs. Pratt: The sisters, Helen
Choate (Mrs. Joshua) Bell and Miriam (Mrs. Ellerton) Pratt, both
were members of the Fields-Jewett circle of artistic friends.
See Correspondents

Mrs. Fields is going to Chardon St.: Annie Adams
Fields. See Correspondents. Chardon
Street
in Boston, is the location of the Charity Building, where among
other offices were those of the Associated Charities.

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in the
Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Folder 73, Burton
Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more information about the
individual transcription, contact the Maine Women Writers
Collection. Preparation by Linda Heller. Notes by
Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Mary Rice Jewett

Thursday evening
[ Summer between 1892 and 1896 ]

Dear Mary

There are those who are dressing themselves for tea in a room
over head so sweet and contented, and the tide is out and all
the pretty seaweed showing in nice colors. I thought you
would like to know… Oh such pretty stories of Bar Harbor
life* have been going on all day, and Carrie* & I laughing
so and wishing that you were present to have the first
freshness. I met A.F.* at the train and I happened
to say something that you said, as we came along, and she turned
to me with such an eager look: Oh is Mary here? and was
so disappointed

[rest of letter missing]

Notes

Summer between 1892 and 1896: A handwritten note on this
transcription reads: 189-. This date range is determined
by the death dates of Carrie and Ned Eastman. See below.

Bar Harbor life: Bar Harbor, ME is a resort town
on Mount Desert Island, near what is now Acadia National Park.
It is not yet known when Jewett may have visited Bar Harbor with
his sister Carrie, but presumably this would have been between
the death of Ned Eastman in March 1892 and her own in April
1897.

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in the
Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Folder 73, Burton
Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more information about the
individual transcription, contact the Maine Women Writers
Collection. Preparation by Linda Heller. Notes by
Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Louisa Loring Dresel

South Berwick

14th October

[ Between 1892 and 1899 ]*

Dear Loulie

I wonder if you can come over to Manchester on
Monday? Perhaps you will send a line. I shall have to
come back on Tuesday -- so that I am planning out my time with as
much care as possible. I had a cheerful laugh over

[ Page 2 ]

the likeness of Loulie and the poor thin pussy! I
should long to know how much more she ^he^
weighs than sixteen pounds. I should go to the next shop and
be weighed first with him & then without him, this being an
easy manner of ascertaining the weight of a Cat. I dont
think it is so good a likeness of you that I could not be parted

[ Page 3 ]

from it, so if you really care to have it back again you
may! But I feel as if I had had a very nice glimpse of
you. Do bring the mountain sketches.

Yours affectionately
S. O. J.

I am to have my nephew* with me and he has not been quite well of
late, so that I shall have to stay by and not be quite so free as
usual.

Notes

Between 1892 and 1899: While it is possible this
letter could have been composed any time between Jewett opening
correspondence with Dresel around 1884 and Jewett's death in 1909,
the more likely period is between the death of Theodore Eastman's
father in 1892 and Theodore starting college in 1897.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Columbia University
(New York) Library in Special Collections, Jewett.
Transcription from a microfilm copy and annotation by Terry
Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Mary Rice Jewett

[Friday morning, 1892 or later]

I am so beat by “Liz Frances’s”* will! Old
whoppet* -- why didn’t she do well by little Mary instead of
Daddy Street* and others! -- and he having a saintly smile of
vain satisfaction already!! Your sister is very mad and
after all their attention and affection all these years to leave
little Mary with a lot of bother on her hands.
Well, she will have her part that’s all I can say.
It mortifies your sister. We must accept John’s letter*
and send him something at new Year or some other time. So
no more at present from

Your
affectionate

S. O. J.

With a beautiful letter from Therese.*

Notes

1892 or later: The earliest letter collected at
this writing that refers to Marie Thérèse de Solms Blanc simply
as "Therese" rather than "Madame Blanc" is from 1894.
However, it seems likely that Jewett may have used her first
name any time after their first meeting in 1892.
Handwritten notes with this text read: [to
Mary] [Friday Morning].

“Liz Frances’s” will! ... Old whoppet ... little Mary ...
Daddy Street: The people and incident to
which Jewett refers are not yet known. Assistance is
welcome.
Jewett appears to have invented the word
"whoppet" as a negative description of Liz Frances. The
word does not appear in contemporary dictionaries or in the
OED. Twenty-first century usage seems clearly
irrelevant.

John's letter: Normally, a reference to John would be
John Tucker, but that is not really clear in this letter.
See Correspondents.

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in
the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Folder 74, Burton
Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more information about
the individual transcription, contact the Maine Women Writers
Collection. Preparation by Linda Heller. Notes by
Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Mary Rice Jewett and Carrie Jewett Eastman

Tuesday morning
[ Spring between 1892 and 1894 ]*

Dear Girls

It is such a great rain that I dont believe you
can start Mary, with the stage ride in view! but there is one
comfort -- it will be much pleasanter afterward. It bears
the marks of being very dry here ---- My train didn't stop
at Beverly so I had to go on to Salem and there I refreshed myself
with orange soda (Stubby* knows where!) and took the electric car
and came to Beverly and got a conveyance from old Mr. Murphy*
which took me to Mrs. Cabots.*

She wasn't quite dressed

[ Page 2 ]

but had me up and gently detained me to dinner and it being past
two by that time I was glad to stay. She looks a little pale
but ^having^ felt the heat very much [ = ?]
She was perfectly enchanted with Theodore's lilacs which have been
blooming away as if they never felt the sun too much for a single
moment. She liked the note too so that altogether he made
her a real pleasure. "The Trimbles"* -- her old friends

[ Page 3 ]

from New York are making her a good visit so she wont feel the absence
^lack^ of mine. Then I was sent down at four in the
Victoria* in fine style and found Mrs. Fields* and Dr. Holmes*
sitting out on the piazza in the warm sunshine -- it being the end
of a long long call. He seems better, but much changed from
last winter. May Wigglesworth* came up very cheerful to make
a call, and we had a cup of tea. It was a perfectly lovely
afternoon.

There was the funniest little gell [meaning
girl] on the electric car [unrecognized word] as we
were

[ Page 4 ]

starting out of Salem -- with a red dress and ^a^ cropped
head. She had reached the age of some six years and sat up
so prim and neat -- but when the conductor came along she wasn't
prepared with her fare, and looked so pleasant and told
the passengers she was going to Beverly Cove* to a picnic.
The conductor laughed and we all did and she was so
pleasant all the time looking round and bobbing her head like a
bird and being ascertained to live in Derby St.* was set off there
with best wishes from the crowd and she stepped off as prim and
little! a funny Pinny* as I ever saw. She really made me
think of myself running away

[ Page 5 ]

at her age; that sense of enjoyment and all! Beverly Cove
looked quiet as I came through. I dont believe there was any
picnic going in any direction. Well little John* will be
going and I must get my letter ready. I hoped to get over to
see Alice Howe* today but I shall have to keep me in out of the
wet. Love to all not forgetting Susy and Frances.*

from your affectionate
Sarah.

Greenheads* entered the train in large numbers --

Notes

Spring between 1892 and 1894: Blooming lilacs
indicates late spring. As the letter does not refer to
Theodore's father, it seems likely the letter was composed after
Edwin Eastman's death in March 1892 and before the death of Dr.
Oliver Wendell Holmes in October 1894.

old Mr. Murphy: This person has not be
identified. Assistance is welcome.
Mrs Cabot: Susan Burley Cabot. See Correspondents.

The Trimbles ... from New York: This family remains
unidentified, though their name appears in several Jewett
letters. Prominent New York Trimbles of Mrs. Cabot's
generation would be the banking family of Merritt Trimble (1824-1903) and Mary Sutton
Underhill (1826-1908). Their son was Walter Underhill
Trimble (1857- 8 September 1926). However, as yet, no
connection between them and Mrs. Cabot has been found.

Victoria: A victoria is an "elegant" four-wheeled open
carriage, to be drawn by horses.

Mrs. Fields and Dr. Holmes: Annie Adams
Fields and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. See Correspondents.
They are on the piazza at Mrs. Fields's Gambrel House on
Thunderbolt Hill in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts.

May Wigglesworth: This may be Henrietta May
Goddard Wigglesworth (1804- February 15, 1895), wife of Edward Wigglesworth (1804-1876), a Boston
merchant, philanthropist, and man of letters. Among their children
was Dr. Edward Wigglesworth (1840-1896), who served as a Union
medical officer in the American Civil War, before becoming a
professor at Harvard Medical School and a specialist in skin
disease.

Beverly Cove ... Derby St.: Beverly Cove is a small
inlet in Beverly, MA, a few miles west of Pride's Crossing, where
Susan Burley Cabot resided. Derby Street in Salem, includes the
location of the Salem Maritime National Historic Site, roughly
parallel to Salem Harbor. The runaway six-year-old, then,
was not able to get far from home on her street-car adventure.

Susy and Frances: Susy may be Susan Marcia Oakes
Woodbury, and Frances is likely to be cousin Frances Fisk Perry,
daughter of Lucretia Morse Fisk Perry. See Correspondents.

Greenheads: Jewett probably refers to an abundance of
biting greenhead horseflies, a summer nuisance in
coastal areas of New England.

The manuscript of this letter is held by Historic New England in
the Jewett Family Papers MS014.02.01. Transcription and
annotation by Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Mary Rice Jewett

[Manchester, Mass., Ju__]
Thursday morning
[ After September 1892 ]

…..…Yesterday I read and set on the piazza and finished covering a
cushion that A. F.* had begun and late in the afternoon we walked
over to the Towne place, and saw the new people MacMillian* -- who
owns it and have made the house much larger. It looks very
much handsomer and pleasant. There is a new piazza on the
end this way which is a great piece of sense -- the
other was almost always too windy. The people havent moved in yet
but we had a few minutes with them and were all friendly together.

Notes

A transcriber's note with this text reads: [Manchester, Mass., Ju
--- SOJ to MRJ So. Berwick, Maine]. The
line of points presumably indicates an omission from the
manuscript.

Towne place ... MacMillian: Benjamin Hill's The North Shore of Massachusetts Bay(1881),
mentions
the charming English villa in Manchester-by-the-Sea, summer
residence of Mrs. John Henry Towne of Philadelphia (p. 51). Maria R. Tevis Towne (1822 - 12 September
1892) . John Henry Towne (1818-1875) was an engineer
who was successful as a designer of heavy steam ships and a major
contributor to University of Pennsylvania science programs.
In Memories of a Hostess, Fields recalls a call by Mrs.
Towne at Manchester by the Sea in August of 1872.
The identity of the new owner, MacMillian, is
unknown. Assistance is welcome.

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in the
Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Undated Letters, Folder
75, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more
information about the individual transcription, contact the Maine
Women Writers Collection. Notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Lilla Cabot Perry

148 Charles Street
Sunday afternoon [1891 -1897, or 1901-1905]

Dear Mrs Perry

Mrs. Fields asks me to say, with best thanks for all three of
us that we have an engagement just at the time of your music
this afternoon. And that we regret having to decline so great a
pleasure. Yours sincerely

S. O. Jewett

Notes

1891 -1897, or 1901-1905: According to Wikipedia,
Lilla Cabot Perry spent a significant portion of her career
abroad, mainly in France (1887-1891) and then in Japan
(1897-1901). She was in France again, beginning in 1905,
not returning to Boston permanently until 1908.

The manuscript of this letter is in the collection of the Miller
Library of Colby College, Waterville, ME. The transcription
first appeared in Scott Federick Stoddart's Ph.D. dissertation at
the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign: Selected Letters
of Sarah Orne Jewett, copyright by Stoddart, 1988.
Annotation is by Stoddart, supplemented where appropriate by Terry
Heller, Coe College.

Charles Street, Boston to Mellen Chamberlain

John Alden says this letter regards "a young Irish-American whom
the two ladies wished to befriend, named Henry Coyle.* Nothing
appears to have come of their efforts, but Coyle himself achieved
a worthy career in Catholic publishing and charitable circles in
Boston, in addition to publishing several volumes of poetry:

Mrs.
Fields has just come up stairs to me to ask if I will not
write this note for her to you about a young man who has come
to her for help. He has done some very good work in verse and
considering his youth, shows a touch of real promise but the
poor fellow is so beaten back by illness and poverty that he
is in a sad way. His disabilities hinder him in what he is
trying to make of himself as a compositor. Mrs. Fields thinks
that you may know of something to recommend to him in library
channels familiar to you, where his acquaintance with books
and his carefulness with his pen may be of use. He spoke of
you gratefully in answer to her mention of your name, as "a
kind and approachable man" -- so that we are following our own
instinct in sending him to you. We shall try to do what we can
for him too.
I
wish that we might sometimes see you. I have not been in town
this winter however except for some brief visits.

COYLE, HENRY. -- The Promise of Morning,
poems, Boston, Mass., 1899.
Born at Boston, Mass., June 7, 1867. His father was a Connaught
man, and his mother from Limerick. He is self-educated, and has
written frequently for American journals, including verse for Harper's
Bazaar, Detroit Free Press, Boston Transcript,
Catholic Union and Times (Buffalo), and Boston Pilot.
Is now assistant-editor of Orphan's Bouquet, Boston, of
which James Riley {q.v.) is editor.

Further and more
consistent information would be welcome.

SOJ to Mary Rice Jewett

Tuesday morning

[ Between 1898 and 1902
]*

Your affectionate sister encloses a little good pair of gloves
and omitted them yesterday & Saturday beside only because
she forgetted them. It is a very beautiful cool morning
and I am going to make the most of it going on with my work
until noon when we are bespoken to Juniper Hill to luncheon with
Josie Dexter & Gracie Howe.* I wish that you were
coming too. We had great plans laid for going over to
Alice Howe’s* yesterday afternoon but a big thunder shower came
up all of a sudden and then cleared away again when it was too
late to start. We spent a quiet day. I had a good
many letters to write early and then I went to writing on a
little poor story. There were those who were very active
with early walks and proper seeing to things & some company
but I dont think of much to write about. I should be
greatly obliged if Mr. Stubs would take off the black paint from
the Viking gentleman* and should deem it a useful service in the
great cause of art. I think there is something very
pleasing about him -- there is a nice touch of carving about the
hemlet as I used to pronounce it. I thought that Emily
and Dr. Mary* were only going to pass a night but they
may have designed a larger plan. I hope that they would be
the kind that one could have a word, with, but I dont know that
our friend returned from Foxcroft much settled. Poor Mrs.
Hale has been through with many trials, and now that I think of
it Mr. Hale and Mr. William Huntress* seem to have had
much the same idea about public trusts! I hope that Sarah
Leah* will go on with the type writing as fast as she can by
day! and if by any chance she should have got it done I
should like to have it. Perhaps it will be good for her
after the visit. So no more at present from your loving
sister with much love to Stubby, and a nice pat to Mr. T. Toes

We are going to town tomorrow.

Notes

Between 1898 and 1902: A handwritten note on this
transcription reads: 189-. This date range places the letter
between Jewett's first meeting with Emily Tyson in 1898 and the
carriage accident that brought an end to Jewett's fiction
writing.

Juniper Hill to luncheon with Josie Dexter & Gracie
Howe: Josephine Anna Moore (1846-1937) was the
second wife of Chicago lawyer Wirt Dexter (1832-1890). She returned to
her Boston home after her husband's death, where she died,
though she was buried with him in Chicago.
Grace Howe (b. 1879) was the daughter of the
Philadelphia businessman and physician, Dr. Herbert Marshall Howe (1844-1916) and
Mary Wilson Fell (b. 1848), and the grand-daughter of Mark
Antony DeWolfe and Elizabeth (Marshall) Howe, his second wife.
The location of Juniper Hill, presumably in
Massachusetts, remains uncertain. Assistance is welcome.

Mr. Stubs ... the black paint from the Viking gentleman:
This reference is unknown. Normally, Mr. Stubs would be
Stubby or Theodore Jewett Eastman, but in this case, it may not
be. See Correspondents.
The word "hemlet" also needs explanation.

Emily and Dr. Mary:
At this writing, the only "Emily" mentioned in Jewett's letters
is Emily Tyson. See Correspondents.
What is meant by Foxcroft is not certain, but possibly Tyson has
spent some time in Foxcroft (Now Dover-Foxcroft),
ME,
Dr. Mary remains unidentified.
Assistance is welcome.

Poor Mrs. Hale ... Mr. Hale and Mr.
William Huntress: The incident referred to here
remains unexplained and the people not identified. It may
be that this Mr. Hale of South Berwick stands accused of some
breach of the public trust, and this may relate to a Maine
Supreme Court case of the "Inhabitants of South Berwick v.
William Huntress et al." from 1864 which involved a dispute over
a bond that was delivered with blanks to be filled in (Cases on the Law of Suretyship, pp.
49ff.)
Several people named William Huntress lived
in the South Berwick area during Jewett's lifetime. Three
of them seem likely candidates: William H. Huntress (1844-1903)
and William M. Huntress (1848-1926), and his father, William W.
Huntress (1817-1894).

Sarah Leah: Sarah Leah, apparently of South
Berwick, worked as Jewett's typist and is mentioned in several
letters. However no details about her identity have been
discovered as of this writing.

Stubby, and a nice pat to Mr. T. Toes: Theodore Jewett
Eastman. See Correspondents.
Mr. T. Toes seems to be a family pet, perhaps
the dog, Timmy, who appears in Jewett letters from 1894 to
1903. Information is welcome.

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in the
Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Folder 73, Burton
Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more information about the
individual transcription, contact the Maine Women Writers
Collection. Preparation by Linda Heller. Notes by
Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Lilian Woodman Aldrich

Friday morning

[ 1894 - 1901 ]

[ Begin letterhead ]

South Berwick.
Maine.

[ End letterhead ]

Dear Lilian

I write this word to make sure that you know
how much we look forward to coming on Tuesday and also that I have
managed to make my plans so that I can stay until the end of the
week instead of flying back on Thursday as I

[ Page 2 ]

thought I should have to [ do ? ] at first. A.F.*
has gone to Nahant just now but she comes back here on Monday and
we start together Tuesday morning a very happy company of two! at
least in anticipation of this moment.

[ Page 3 ]

I shall look for Mr. Allen* at Thomaston and I can hardly wait to
see you both at the journeys end.

Yours affectionately

"Sadie"

(but not Mifs Martinot)*

T.B.* and I can go fishing for the family as we did at Ponkapog!

Notes

1894 - 1902: While it is possible that this letter
was written after 1903, it is more likely to come from between the
Aldriches taking possession of the Crags in 1894 and Jewett's
nearly fatal carriage accident in September 1902.

Mr. Allen: Mr. Allen has not yet been identified.
That Jewett and Fields will pass through Thomaston, ME, indicates
that they will visit the Aldriches at their summer home, The
Crags, in Tenant's Harbor, ME.

Mifs Martinot: Sadie Martinot was a Jewett nickname with
the Aldriches, presumably after the American actress and singer,
Sarah/Sadie Martinot. See Correspondents.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library,
Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Thomas Bailey Aldrich Papers,
119 letters of Thomas Bailey and Lilian Woodman Aldrich,
1837-1926. MS Am 1429 (117). Transcribed and annotated by Terry
Heller, Coe College.
At the bottom left of page one, in another
hand, is a circled number: 2733.

SOJ to Isabella Stewart Gardner

[ 1894 or later ]

Dear Mrs Gardner

I hoped to bring this book to you long ago, but
I could not, in a winter of many disappointments! . . And I
was so sorry not to see you longer on Saturday, but I knew how
eagerly Mrs. Fields* was thinking of your visit -- But I was only
wishing to say things that never can be said about your beautiful
kindness that night she was

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Isabella Stewart
Gardner Museum, Boston, MA. Transcription and annotation by
Terry Heller, Coe College.

Isabella Steward Gardner to SOJ

[ Unrecognized word ] Gardner [ penciled
in another hand ? ]

[ Early 1890s ]*

[ Begin Letterhead ]

152 Beacon Street.

[ End Letterhead ]

Dear Miss Jewett

"It" meets here at luncheon next Saturday at 1.15 -- &
we ^all^ are devoutly praying to have you with us --

Please come --

----------------- yours

Isabella --

Notes

Early 1890s: The "It" Club for which this is an
invitation is known to have been active from about 1890 until at
least 1894. Shana McKenna, Archivist at the Isabella Stewart
Gardner Museum says that "It" was a lunch club formed by Julia
Ward Howe and Isabella Stewart Gardner that included a few Boston
women prominent in the arts.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library,
Harvard University, bMS Am 1743 (73). Transcribed and
annotated by Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to "Sally"*

Friday afternoon
[Between 1894 and 1903]*

Dear Sally

I was in Cambridge this morning after I saw you and asked
Sally Norton* about the stories, thinking there was a chance
about Margaret* since she so loves a school. And
Sally at once said 'Oh Helen Child and her sister!* They have a
charming gift for story telling!"

'Ten minutes at a time" said I -- "and all clear and
definite?" -- and she said yes. So I pass this
answer on to you at once. I hope it will prove to be of some
help. I think that the ballads & folk-lore they couldn't
help knowing would be the best of funds to draw from.

Yours affectionately

S. O. Jewett

Notes

Between 1894 and 1903: Sorting out the problems of this
letter leads to tantalizing possibilities, but little conclusive
about the recipient or the date. As the letter recounts a talk
with Sara (Sally) Norton and mentions Helen Child, daughter of
Harvard professor Francis James Child, one may infer that it was
composed after the earliest letter we have between Jewett and
Norton in October 1894, and before the death of Helen Child in
1903. However, Jewett recounts meeting Norton in a letter
to Mary Rice Jewett of March 22, 1888, so there may be earlier
correspondence between them.

Sally: Sally Fairchild (1869-1960) is a possible
recipient, one of the few local people named "Sally," in
addition to Sarah (Sally) Norton, with whom there is evidence
Jewett had contact. Sally Fairchild wrote one letter to
Mary Jewett in 1924 that is held by Harvard's Houghton
Library. Also at the Houghton are letters between
Fairchild's parents (Charles and Elizabeth "Lilly" Nelson of
Boston), Jewett and Annie Fields. The Brookline
Historial
(Massachusetts) Society provides this suggestive sketch of
Fairchild:

Her father was a wealthy stock
broker and banker and her parents were frequent hosts of
prominent artists and writers. She never married and often
lived with her younger brother, Gordon: at St Paul’s School
where he ran the Upper School; in the Philippines; in Japan;
and, when he returned to Boston around 1930, at his house at
391 Beacon St., Boston. After he died at sea in 1932 she moved
to 241 Beacon St.
She made quite an impression on some very
famous people of that era. There are descriptions of her by
George Bernard Shaw, Bertrand Russell, George Santayana, the
Fabian leader Beatrice Webb, and the Shakespearean actress
Ellen Terry. Shaw took several photographs of her and
corresponded with her for many years. She also gave a young
Ethel Barrymore a letter of introduction to Shaw. Here is a
description from Gertrude Kittredge Eaton, in her
Reminiscences Of St. Paul's School: "Mrs. Fairchild had at one
time what might be called a salon, in Boston. She knew all the
interesting people of the day. She was one of the first to
appreciate Walt Whitman. John Singer Sargent was a great
friend, and painted
many
pictures of Sally, who had lovely red hair. Red hair
fascinated Sargent. She was an early admirer of Robert Louis
Stevenson. When her husband went abroad one year, she told him
to look up young Stevenson and have Sargent paint his
portrait, which he did. Stevenson stayed with the Fairchilds
in Boston, and Gordon remembered sitting on the foot of his
bed while Stevenson told him stories. There are many letters
to the Fairchilds in the collected letters of Stevenson. "

Margaret: We have almost no clues in this
case. Jewett knew a number of persons named Margaret,
including Margaret
Deland (1857-1945), a Boston novelist who began her
writing career in the late 1880s.
Jewett also corresponded with Margaret
Thomson
Janvier (1844-1913), who "was born in New Orleans. Under
the pen name Margaret Vandergrift she wrote many juveniles,
among which are: The Absent-Minded Fairy, and Other Verses
(1884); The Dead Doll, and Other Verses (1900); Under
the Dog-Star (1900); and Umbrellas to Mend
(1905)."

Helen Child and her sister: Almost certainly, here
Jewett refers to daughters of Francis James Child, "Harvard’s
first professor of English, eminent folklorist, and noted
Chaucer scholar..." The Cambridge
Historical Society sketch continues: "In 1860, Child
married Elizabeth Ellery Sedgwick (1824-1909), daughter of
Robert and Elizabeth Dana Ellery Sedgwick. The couple raised
four children, Helen Maria Child (1863-1903), Susan Ridley
Sedgwick Child (1866-1946), Henrietta Ellery Child (b. 1867),
and Francis Sedgwick Child (1868-1935). Among Child’s close
friends were his cousin and classmate Charles Eliot Norton, the
poet James Russell Lowell, and the brothers William and Henry
James.... The work of scholarship for which Child is best known
is his English and Scottish Ballads, in which he
included authentic versions of the best-known ballads from these
countries. The work appeared in print in eight small volumes
between 1857 and 1858, and included multiple versions of 305
ballads. Child provided a full history for each ballad, noting
its manuscript source and its appearance in other European
countries. His work was so widely accepted as the canon of folk
ballads that the ballads are now known as “the Child ballads”
and scholars reference them by the number that Child assigned
them. "
One may imagine that Jewett is attempting to
find someone to aid a writer friend of Sally Fairchild, named
Margaret, with someone Norton knows, and that Norton is
suggesting the Child daughters as possibilities.
Assistance is welcome.

The manuscript of this letter is in the collection of the
Miller Library of Colby College, Waterville, ME. The
transcription first appeared in Scott Frederick Stoddart's Ph.D.
dissertation at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign: Selected
Letters
of Sarah Orne Jewett, copyright by Stoddart, 1988.
Annotation is by Stoddart, supplemented where appropriate by Terry
Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Julia Caroline Dorr

148 Charles street

Friday morning [late winter, between 1893 and
December 1898]

South-Berwek-Maine *

Dear Mrs. Dorr.

I thank you for your most kind letter I am so glad that you
are feeling a little better but how good it will be to have the
sunshine again!

You are so very kind about the carriage and if you have no
other use for it on Monday or Tuesday, and if it should be good
weather I should be delighted to go to Elmwood* in the afternoon
to see Mabel Burnett* Possibly Mrs Fields can go too. My
long illness earlier in the winter and absence from Town later
make me feel as if winter were just beginning -- I have not seen
Mabel for a long time. -- There's one comfort, that will be a
short winter! -- It is so interesting to know of a possible
relationship and I am most eager to welcome the thoughts -- I
incline to the belief that you must belong to the Salem Ornes
however, and I to their Portsmouth kindred[.] It was my father's
mother for whom I was named: she died when he was a baby,* and
there is no one left in Portsmouth of the family -- I must show
you the silhouette some day and ask you more about such an
interesting subject. Mrs. Fields would be sure to send her love
-- She went out yesterday morning to stop and ask for you, but
the rain forced her to hurry home.

Yours affectionately
Sarah O. Jewett

Notes

between 1893 and December 1898: Because Mrs.
Burnett died in December 1898, this letter must predate that
event. An
obituary of Mrs. Burnett indicates that she was an invalid
for several years before her death. The letter seems to
imply that one must go to Mrs. Burnett in order to see her.Maine: Jewett frequently used her "South Berwick,
Maine" stationery during her visits to other places, crossing out
the engraved address.

Elmwood: The home of James Russell Lowell in
Cambridge, Massachusetts.

baby: Jewett's father, Theodore Herman Jewett was
born on 24 March 1815; his mother, Sarah Orne, died on 15 June
1819.

The manuscript of this letter is in the collection of the Miller
Library of Colby College, Waterville, ME. The transcription
first appeared in Scott Federick Stoddart's Ph.D. dissertation at
the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign: Selected Letters
of Sarah Orne Jewett, copyright by Stoddart, 1988.
Annotation is by Stoddart, supplemented where appropriate by Terry
Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Mary B. Claflin

148. Charles Street,

Boston. 10 March (Before 1896)*

Dear Mrs. Claflin

Thank you for remembering me, but I am going away for a few
days for a change, and I am afraid at any rate I should not be
quite equal to the day at Wellesley -- *

Yours affectionately
Sarah O. Jewett.

Notes

Before 1896: As the note below indicates, Jewett
could not have written to Claflin after her death in 1896.

Wellesley: Governor William Claflin (1818-1905) signed
the charter for Wellesley College on March 17, 1870, paving the
way for the Wellesley Female Seminary to become Wellesley
College in 1875. He and his wife, Mary Bucklin Davenport
Claflin (1825 - 1896) remained deeply involved with the college,
residing in nearby Newton, MA after his retirement from
politics. Mrs. Claflin made a number of presentations on
campus. For example the The
Wellesley
Magazine 2:3 (23 December 1893) reported that Jewett
was "present at a distance" for a December 11, 1893 reception to
honor Mr. and Mrs. Richard Watson Gilder (p. 215).

The manuscript of this letter is in the collection of the
Miller Library of Colby College, Waterville, ME. The
transcription first appeared in Scott Federick Stoddart's Ph.D.
dissertation at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign: Selected
Letters
of Sarah Orne Jewett, copyright by Stoddart, 1988.
Annotation is by Stoddart, supplemented where appropriate by Terry
Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Mary Rice Jewett

Thursday afternoon
[ Before 1896 ]

Dear Mary

I
have returned from Exeter and had a very pleasant little
visit. Aunty of course feels Mrs. Tarleton's death* very
much but she seemed very well and 'took it' with much [ intended
more or much more ? ] composure than one
could imagine -- but I think the people who make the least cry
about such things always feel the worst. I saw the whole
congregation.

Notes

Before 1896: If the letter speaks of Aunt Lucretia
Perry, then it must have been composed before her death in 1896.

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in the
Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Undated Letters, Folder
75, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more
information about the individual transcription, contact the Maine
Women Writers Collection. Notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Annie Adams Fields to Sara Norton

148 Charles St. Boston
March 16th[ After 1897 ]

Dear Sally:

I have asked Mme Hopekirk* for Sunday 27th
and we hope you can come in the previous Saturday, and so give us
two nights --

If I hear the lady (not of the lute!* but) of
the [ piano corrected ] cannot come I will let you know
and seek for another date because we are not willing to lose your
visit --

After 1897: While this is not yet certain, it seems
probable that Fields and Sarah Orne Jewett were able to invite
Helen Hopekirk for a musical evening after she moved to the
United States in late 1897.

Mme Hopekirk: Scottish-born
pianist and composer, Helen Hopekirk (1856-1945) was head of
the piano department at the New England Conservatory from
autumn 1897, though she had toured in the United States in the
1880s and again in 1891-2.
It would appear they also hope a "lady of
the lute" will attend, but the identity of this person is
unknown.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library,
Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Letters received by the
family of Charles Eliot Norton MS Am 1088.1 VII Letters to
Sara Norton, 787-0001. Transcribed and annotated by Terry
Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Mary Rice Jewett

Sunday afternoon

[ Winter 1898 or after ]*

Dear Mary

…..… Elise* came up and made a nice little call in my room the
afternoon and Mrs. Fields* was much pleased to see her too on her
way down; she looked so pretty and seemed so bright -- they talked
about the house party, etc. If there is sleighing which this
rain doesn't look much like! -- do let her have Fanny* -- or
Theodore* could drive down with the double sleigh and
assist. You must let Joe* drive Fanny when you don't want
her to go -- he never came to any grief with Father Gorman's*
horses in long winters and if he does whirl corners remember that
we have always been liable to do the same! at any rate I had
just as soon let him put Fanny along a road as fast as she can go,
and run the risk if there is any, rather than have you get too
anxious and careful about her. So set him off, and if
there's any damage I'll pay the bills; it's the only way to make
any thing of a man like Joe, to trust him -- and he is
very different from the days when he often had something taken,
and used to urge the priest's pelters unduly “just like an
Irishman”. --- I've seen him drive, and he does as well as
most -- so let him go with her if it isn't very pleasant, or you
can drive the other one or anything. (I hope that good Jane
Ann* is well. I feel condemned for speaking of her as “the
other one”.)

Notes

1898 or after: This letter must have been composed
after Emily and Elise Tyson purchased Hamilton House in South
Berwick. As Jewett seems to be at Annie Fields's, it is
unlikely to come from 1902-3, when Jewett was confined after her
September 1902 carriage accident. That John Tucker, the
Jewetts's driver, is not mentioned, suggests a date after his 1902
death.
The line of points presumably indicates an
omission from the manuscript.

Joe: In a letter of Saturday [June 17 or 24,
1899] to Annie Adams Fields, Jewett mentions Joe, the gardener,
and his "old" Mary. There it appears they may be employees
of Emily Tyson.

Father Gorman: Father James P. Gorman became pastor
at St. Michael's Catholic Church in South Berwick in 1892, after a
decade of service at St. John the Baptist Church in Brunswick, ME,
where he led in building a new church and in converting the old
church into a school. See Brunswick Churches and Religions, pp.
39-41. He remained at St. Michael's until 1913.

pelters: Jewett uses this unfamiliar word in a
variety of ways in her letters. Here she seems to refer to
horses.

Jane Ann: Another Jewett horse.

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in the
Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Undated Letters, Folder
75, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more
information about the individual transcription, contact the Maine
Women Writers Collection. Notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Mary Rice Jewett

Manchester

Tuesday
[ 1900 or later ]

[letter to Mary]

…………….At night -- after an ample supper for a returning traveller
Mrs. Fields* sat down to sew and I was reading the French Country
House which I had got off the table in Jessie's room* and began to
read aloud. Stubby* had gone out to smoke and presently
returned and we got so pleased and laughing over the story that we
all continued and read all the evening. Night before last we
were at the Howes and Jessie played after dinner and then poor old
George and Alice nearly died laughing over Jess and Stubby
in their great cake-walk scene. I wish you could see them
prance and do it in the big hall there, both in their best
array. A. F. urged them up to it -- she'll be going herself
soon with Jessie to play the quick-step! I must stop writing
now, for I want to be busy this morning. Give my love to
all -- especially Herring* and I am sure Stubby sends
his.

Affectionately,

Sarah

There were those who were caught in the rain down on the beach
this morning and had to come galloping home all wet, Mary!

Notes

1900 or later: Jewett's nephew, Theodore, who
graduated from Harvard in 1901, is old enough to smoke cigars and
to make an entertaining summer guest in Manchester, MA.
A transcriber's note with this text reads: [
letter to Mary ]. The line of points presumably
indicates an omission from the manuscript. Mrs. Fields: Annie Adams Fields,. also A. F. See Correspondents.

the French Country House: Adelaide Kemble Sartoris (1815 - 1879) was
an English opera singer, the younger sister of Fanny Kemble,
actress and anti-slavery activist. She wrote A Week in a
French Country House (1867).

at the Howes .. George and Alice: Alice Greenwood and
George Dudley Howe. See Correspondents.

Herring: This person has not been identified.
Assistance is welcome.

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in the
Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Undated Letters, Folder
75, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more
information about the individual transcription, contact the Maine
Women Writers Collection. Notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Mary Rice Jewett

[Wed. evening 1900 or later]

I should think Susy* would know now. I had a very
pleasant time at Mrs. Tysons.* Alice Howe was there &
Mrs. Pratt & Mrs. John Gray and Mrs. Vaughan Ellen Vaughan
again, & Mrs. Pickman “Nelly Mother”.* I dont think
they are coming right away but Mrs. Tyson said Elise* was going
to see the Opera though & then take a week in Philadelphia
and then “go to Berwick for the rest of her natural Life” she
thought. She said it so funny. I didn’t see Elise
but I think I heard her skip down stairs & away to the
Matinees. I made some calls afterward and only found Mrs.
Henry Higginson & Sally Rice and -- who do you think little
Mrs. Phipps,* at home! I have been wishing to get to see
her & it is right round the corner from Mrs. Tyson’s.
She is a good nice little woman. I told her what I thought
would interest her about things at the school* -- &
especially the Library, but told no tales for she has done what
she could, and I dont look to her for more. She seemed
pleased because I came, but I really liked her before when I
went.

Notes

1900 or later: The letter must have been composed
after Emily and Elise Tyson began staying regularly at Hamilton
House in South Berwick. The fact that Jewett's list of
people she's seen is somewhat disordered, suggests a date after
spring 1903, by which she was partially recovered from her
debilitating carriage accident of September 1902. Handwritten
notes with this text read: [to Mary] [Wed. evening].

Susy: Usually when Jewett mentions Susy to Mary, she
refers to Susan Marcia Oakes Woodbury. See Correspondents.
Whether that is the case this time is not certain.

Alice Howe ... Mrs. Pratt & Mrs. John Gray and Mrs.
Vaughan Ellen Vaughan again, & Mrs. Pickman“Nelly
Mother”:
Alice Greenwood (Mrs. George Dudley) Howe.
See Correspondents.
Which Mrs. Pratt is meant is not yet
known. In Correspondents,
see Eliza Pratt and Mrs. Ellerton Pratt (with Helen Choate
Bell). Another possibility is Frances Emily Carruth (Mrs. Elliot Willian) Pratt
(1845-1929), who was a friend of Anna Mason (Mrs. John) Gray.
Mrs. John Gray may be Anna Lyman Mason (Mrs. John Chipman) Gray
(1853-1932). John Chipman Gray (1839 -1915) "was an
American scholar of property law and professor at Harvard Law
School. He also founded the law firm Ropes & Gray, with law
partner John Codman Ropes. He was half-brother to U.S. Supreme
Court justice Horace Gray."
Ellen Vaughan is likely to be Ellen Twisleton
Parkman (Mrs. William Warren) Vaughan (1853-1924), but this has
not yet been confirmed.
It seems that "Nelly Mother" may refer to
Mrs. Pickman, as Ellen Vaughan seems to refer to Mrs.
Vaughan. Among the acquaintances of the above people were
Ellen Rodman Motely (1854-1939) and Dudley
Leavitt Pickman (1850-1938) of Boston. Whether this Ellen
is the Mrs. Pickman mentioned here is not known. Her only
child was Dudley L. Pickman, Jr. (1885-1964).

Mrs. Henry Higginson & Sally Rice ... Mrs. Phipps:
Mrs.
Henry Higginson is Ida Agassiz Higginson. See Correspondents.
Sally Rice has not been identified.
Assistance is welcome. Jewett praises Mrs.
Phipps for her beneficence to the Berwick Academy in an early draft of her essay, "The Old Town of
Berwick." In the final published draft of July 1894,
Jewett apparently praises her husband instead, "the late A.
Phipps, Esq., of Boston." John Alfred Phipps (1832-1892)
was a benefactor of the Berwick academy through his
estate. His wife was Mary J. H. Phipps, and she would have
made part of his estate available to the academy. It
appears Phipps married Mary Jacobs (Abbott?) (b. 29 December,
1832). More information is welcome.

things at the school: The Berwick Academy in South
Berwick.

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in
the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Folder 74, Burton
Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more information about
the individual transcription, contact the Maine Women Writers
Collection. Preparation by Linda Heller. Notes by
Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Mary Rice Jewett

Saturday morning
[Springafter 1900 ]

Dear Mary

I
send you the materials for Miss Chases behoff* -- and I hope you
will like them. I am going to have her make me an India
silk skirt which can be worn to mill and to meeting as Jennie S.
says. I wonder if Miss E. Warren could do it -- but how
nice if she could come & sew (on waists & things).
If you havent done or seen, about her perhaps you could have her
week after next. I am setting upon the 10th to
go home or 11th as near as I can tell. You can
take this bundle for an Easter present!* I feel like
Grandpa who had begun too late to hear of keeping Christmas in
Massachusetts.* I think I began too late about Easter the
only times I have much deep association with are those young
days when Georgie & I used to go to Trinity.* I meant
to write her a letter to get tomorrow, but I must now write it
tomorrow. I am still hoping that you may fetch a compass
& come up. -- -- -- --
-- --

Notes

after 1890s: This speculative date is based upon
the fact that Jewett writes about hiring seamstress work, but
does not mention Olive Grant, who was the main family seamstress
until her death in 1901.
The dashes at the end indicate this is an
incomplete transcription.

Miss Chases behoff: It seems possible that Miss
Chase is Mary Ellen Chase. See Correspondents.
The
use of the term "behoff" is odd for Jewett. It is a legal
term (more often spelled "behof"), meaning for someone's use or
advantage. Perhaps Jewett is suggesting that the materials are
simply for Ellen Chase? However, this context suggests
that the Jewetts know another Miss Chase who is a
seamstress. Assistance is welcome.

Jennie S. ... Miss E. Warren: The identities of Jennie
S. and E. Warren are not yet known. It appears that among
the employees in Carrie Jewett Eastman's household during the
1890s was a woman named Jennie, who is mentioned in other
letters. However, it seems likely this letter was composed
after sister Carrie's death.

Grandpa ... Christmas: Dr. William Perry (See Correspondents)
apparently was among those conservative New Englanders who
resisted turning Christmas into a semi-secular holiday.
See the 19th-century history of the holiday in Wikipedia.

Georgie ... Trinity: Georgina Halliburton and
Jewett sometimes attended Trinity Church (Episcopal) together
when Jewett was in Boston. See Correspondents.

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in the
Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Folder 74, Burton
Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more information about the
individual transcription, contact the Maine Women Writers
Collection. Preparation by Linda Heller. Notes by
Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Mary Rice Jewett

[Tuesday Morning]
[ Before 1901]*

I have been thinking about your other lace dress, and I think
on the whole, that I should get it made. Mrs. Pierce* told
me when I asked her, that such lace was in high style this
winter and you might just as well take the climbing wave!
I should bring up the lace any way, but if you do use it be sure
to have the dress very light and then you could use it in summer
(except the very mid-summer) when you couldn’t use your satin, I
should think. I send you Zip’s note and old
Helen’s:* Both very pleasant. I shall try to get to
old Helen’s tomorrow as she has now set Wednesday for her
day. I grudge these lovely days away when we might be
going to places. I do hope that you and an illustrious not
to say welcome guest are making the most of them! I
perfectly ache when I think of not getting up Agamenticus* this
year but we may fetch it yet November is the month in which I
have fullest confidence. A.F.’s* cold is almost
gone. She was going to fly all abroad in every direction
yesterday, but a young man came to sit with her who is writing a
life of Govr Andrew.* I must now leave you with much love

Sarah

Notes

Handwritten notes with this text read: [to Mary] [Tuesday
Morning].

Before 1901: The letter must have been composed
before the death of Anne Longfellow Pierce.

Mrs. Pierce: Richard Cary says: "Anne Longfellow
(1810-1901) married George W. Pierce, described by the poet as
'brother-in-law and dearest friend'." However, Jewett seems here
to be speaking of an authority on clothing. In a July 15,
1900 letter to Lilian Aldrich, Jewett mentions a favorite
dressmaker and friend who will be staying part of the summer in
Tenants Harbor, ME.

a young man ... a life of Govr Andrew: John Albion Andrew, Republican, was
governor of Massachusetts during the Civil War, 1861-1866.
The young man probably was Henry Greenleaf Pearson, whose The Life of John A. Andrew appeared
in 1904.

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in the
Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Folder 74, Burton
Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more information about
the individual transcription, contact the Maine Women Writers
Collection. Preparation by Linda Heller. Notes by
Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Mrs. Scott*

South Berwick Maine
[ 18 corrected ] October
[ Before 1902 ]*

Dear Madam,

I am sorry that I have very little time just
now to answer your questions -- which would really take a great
deal of time! -- and I find it very hard to think of writing a
sort of essay about my [ own corrected ] habits of work
and the conception and development

[ Page 2 ]

of the characters of my stories. As for my 'literary
conscience' I quail before even the thought of answering questions
about that, for every writer works so much from instinct. I
can write, but when you ask me to write about my writing it does
not seem quite worth while -- Why dont you write the
papers about your authors quite by yourself? It would be so
much better for there is a great lack of serious

[ Page 3 ]

criticism and comparison of literary work. and [so written]
I can assure you that you would find your authors and the public
both sincerely grateful for sympathy and appreciation; for [
consideration corrected ] of such work and its aims.
It is the work and not those who do it with which we have
most concern. You can make up a sort of [personal corrected
] sketch from the answers to your questions, but it neither will
represent or profit your authors nor yourself in any vital and

[ Page 4 ]

real way -- Take two storywriters [so written] and say what
you think they have tried to do and how you think
they have succeeded and [make corrected] a good fresh
little paper -- What does it [matter corrected] to the
public whether anyone works two hours a day or twelve -- if the
work is bad when it is done -- or good either! Forgive me
for disappointing you but I know I am right, and I say what I
believe with sincere and kind feeling and interest in your
success.

Yours most truly
S. O. Jewett.

to Mrs Scott. [a mark that looks like y]

Notes

Before 1902: This letter seems likely to have been
composed almost anytime in Jewett's active writing career, though
Jewett's confidence in her opinion could suggest that it comes
from later rather than earlier.

Mrs. Scott: This recipient has not been identified.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Small Library,
University of Virginia, Special Collections MSS 6218, Sarah Orne
Jewett Papers. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.

SOJ to Mary Rice Jewett

Sunday morning
[1899 - December 1902]*

Dear Mary

………..do have some good rides with John* and get Mrs. Goodwin* some
day. If they have all got whooping cough she will be so glad
of the change poor thing! Such a banging thunder shower
waked me up this morning. I wonder it if was all along
shore? With much love,

Sarah

Notes

The line of points presumably indicates an omission from the
manuscript.

Sunday morning: That Jewett mentions no other family
members suggests that this letter comes from 1899 or later, but
this cannot be certain, especially given that we have only this
fragment. John Tucker died in December 1902.

Mrs. Goodwin: Which of several Mrs. Goodwin's of
South Berwick is meant here is difficult to determine.

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in the
Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Undated Letters, Folder
75, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more
information about the individual transcription, contact the Maine
Women Writers Collection. Notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Isabella Steward Gardner to SOJ

April 21 [ 1901-1909 ]*

[ Begin Letterhead ]

Fenway Court*

[ End Letterhead ]

My dear, alas, next Sunday is my last in town, & I have told
some people that may come to see me -- So I am forced to be
here I

[ Page 2 ]

had thought Saturday was the day I was to see
the Wards* [one or two unrecognized words] & dear
Mrs. Fields. Also I wanted you to bring them both to
take a cup of tea here with me on Sunday, either in the Court
or the Dutch [ unrecognized word ], if the latter was
still possibly in [ communication ? ].

So you see I am

[ Page 3 ]

doubly grieved that I cannot be at 148 Charles Street next Sunday.

With love to you both

I am
Affy yours
Isabella S. G.

Notes

1901- 1909: As the letter is addressed from Fenway
Court (see below), it probably was composed between 1901 and
Jewett's stroke in early 1909.

Fenway Court: Gardner's Venetian style palazzo in
Boston's Back Bay, now the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, opened on 1
January 1903, according to Wikipedia, but other sources have her
occupying the building as early as 1901 (see Clarendon Square).

the Wards: There are at least 3 Ward couples to whom
Gardner may refer. Perhaps the most likely are the siblings,
Susan Hayes Ward and William Hayes Ward, editors of the Independent
and close friends of Jewett and Fields. But she may well
refer to the novelist, Mrs. Humphry Ward and her daughter Dorothy,
who visited Fields and Jewett in the spring of 1902. If
Gardner was using Fenway Court stationary by 1902, then this
letter may refer to this pair and may have been composed in
1902. Perhaps least likely, but not impossible, are novelist
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps and her husband, Herbert Dickinson
Ward. For details on all of these people, see
Correspondents.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library,
Harvard University, bMS Am 1743 (73). Transcribed and
annotated by Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Mary Rice Jewett

Thursday

[ After 1901 ]

Dear Mary

-------------------
It was an enchanting day, and so is this. There were
people about the streets again, and I had a visit from two --
One, the wife, had written me before. I felt her to be a
little tiresome and she was! but the husband was very
nice. They were from Rutgers College in New Jersey but the
wife was born in Baltimore was daughter to an Adah Hamilton
daughter to Baial and they had kindly wept over the Tory Lover*
and came on pilgrimage. I spoke of Mrs. Jaques* and told
them how to get to the view of Hamilton House.* They were
named Prentiss. The garden was pleasing and Oh what a
resource it is!
--------------------------------------------------------

Sarah

Notes

The hyphens at the beginning and end indicate this is an
incomplete transcription.

daughter to an Adah Hamilton daughter to Baial ... the Tory
Lover ... Prentiss: Jewett's novel appeared in
serial in 1900-01 and as a book in 1901. A main character
is Jonathan Hamilton, who was based upon the historical
personage who built Hamilton House in South Berwick. Baial
is a common name for men of the Hamilton family, sometimes as a
shortened form of Abdiel; therefore, it seems clear that Mrs.
Prentiss claims ancestry from Jonathan Hamilton, the character
in Jewett's novel and for this reason is particularly interested
in the book.
Robert Wadsworth Prentiss (1857-1913) was
professor of mathematics and astronomy in Rutgers College. He
married Adah Emery Dodge, daughter of Alanson Hamilton Dodge and
Adah Hamilton. See Class of 1878, Rutgers College, History to
1917, p. 21.

Mrs. Jaques ... Hamilton House: Mrs. Jaques has
not been identified. Assistance is welcome.
Hamilton House is the 18th-century house
built by Jonathan Hamilton in South Berwick. See Emily
Davis Tyson in Correspondents.

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in the
Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Folder 74, Burton
Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more information about
the individual transcription, contact the Maine Women Writers
Collection. Preparation by Linda Heller. Notes by
Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Mary Rice Jewett

Friday

[August 1903 or later]*

South Berwick, Maine

Dear Mary

I
opened this letter from Uncle Will* thinking that there might be
the chance of his coming. I’ll send him a note -- and then
you can write him when you get round to it. I was so glad
to get your letter and M. A.’s* yesterday -- do thank her and
say she was so kind to write. I feel quite rich to share
the pleasure of your visit and oh so pleased about Susy’s asking
dear Miss Howe!* So many of her old friends have gone now,
that it is lonely [lovely ?] to have younger ones keep
her from feeling left out and lonely. She never was so
delightful, either! Mrs. Lewis came in yesterday for a
minute, to speak about her (Mrs. Hill)* saying that she could
appoint either the 24th of October or the 31st
preferring the latter. I had been thinking about Mr.
Copeland,* and I told Mrs. Lewis that I would, as a FRIEND, make
up Mr. Copeland’s sum. I think it will be as good a thing
as the Club can have, and we’ll get Mr. Nye to marshal forth the
Academy flock, and sit Blanche Adams in the front row! The
more I think of it the better I feel[.] BECCA came
in at noon for a minute and Mrs. Wentworth* in the
evening. Timmy is well but needs exercise though Katy has
taken him as far as the monument* both nights. I shall try
to get out for a little drive this afternoon. It is
Dicky’s turn to the Forge today. The phaeton was brought
yesterday looking very nice and the hay came. Make THE LAKIES*
promise to come and see us -- tell dear M. A. that the
hollyhocks are beginning (poor John’s* are all in bloom by the
stable door) and she can be took to see the country in the
trolley car! --- Your letters dont come until the second
mail. Give my love to dear Ellen and Ida* if you see them
again. I hope Ellen isn’t ill again. She seemed so
much better. With dear love

Sarah

The cup [has] not come yet.

Notes

August 1903 or later: As the notes below indicate,
this letter was composed after the opening of the first South
Berwick trolley line, and probably fairly soon after the death of
John Tucker. That Hollyhocks are just blooming indicates a
late July or early August date. While there are indications
it may have been composed later, I have tentatively chosen the
earliest likely year.

M. A.'s: This person is as yet unknown. It
appears that while Mary is staying in Boston, she expects to see
a good deal of this person. Assistance is welcome.

Susy’s asking dear Miss Howe: Susy probably is Susan
Marcia Oakes Woodbury. See Correspondents.
In a letter to Mary Rice Jewett currently
dated Late Summer 1900, Jewett mentions that Miss Grace Howe has
visited Annie Fields. It is possible, then, that this is
Grace Howe (b. 1879), the daughter of the Philadelphia
businessman and physician, Dr. Herbert Marshall Howe (1844-1916)
and Mary Wilson Fell (b. 1848), and the grand-daughter of the
Rev. Mark Antony DeWolfe Howe (1808-1895) and Elizabeth
Marshall, his second wife. Rev. Howe was the first Bishop
of the Episcopal Diocese of Central Pennsylvania. By his
third wife, Eliza Whitney (1826-1909), Rev. Howe was the father
of Mark Antony DeWolfe Howe (1864-1960), who became the editor
of Annie Fields's diaries in Memories of a Hostess and
who assisted Fields in editing Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett.

Mrs. Lewis ... (Mrs. Hill): For Mrs. Lewis,
see George Lewis in Correspondents.
There
were Hill families in South Berwick from the 17th century
on. The identity of this Mrs. Hill is not yet known.
Assistance is welcome.

Mr. Copeland ... the Club: Jewett and her sister, Mary,
were active members of the South Berwick Women's Club by about
1895. Mary Jewett seems to have presented a talk for the club, "Recollections of Whittier," sometime after
Sarah's death. Blanchard reports that Julia Ward Howe made
regular appearances to speak at the local women's club (Sarah
Orne Jewett pp. 353-4).
It appears likely that the club has invited
Charles Townsend Copeland (1860-1952), Boylston Professor of
Rhetoric and Oratory at Harvard University from 1892 to 1928.
Richard Cary says: "While a Boston journalist, he became a
regular visitor at 148 Charles Street, eventually introducing
Mark A. DeWolfe Howe to Mrs. Fields and Miss Jewett in their
"shrine of associations." Copeland admired the simple force of
Miss Jewett's work and gave 'A White Heron' high place in his
repertoire of public readings." See also Wikipedia.

Mr. Nye ... the Academy flock ... Blanche Adams:
Frank Elmer Nye (1866-1937) was for many
years Head Master or Principal at the Berwick Academy in South
Berwick. Miss Blanche Adams is mentioned in a Lewiston Evening
Journal note for December 27, 1898: "The ladies of
the Free Baptist church held a successful Christmas bazaar in
the church vestry Thursday evening. Miss Blanche Adams
entertained the audience with effective dramatic selections."
This person seems to be "Blanche Hermine
Adams," later Mrs. Young of Dover, NH, probably born 22 Oct
1871. She graduated from the Berwick Academy in
1890. Confirmation and further information are welcome.

BECCA ... Mrs. Wentworth: Becca is Rebecca Young. See Correspondents.
Wentworth
is a common name in South Berwick and the region. The
identity of this Mrs. Wentworth is not yet known.

Timmy ... Katy .. the monument: Timmy is a Jewett
family dog, first mentioned in a letter of 1894 and last
mentioned as "old" in 1903. For Katy Galvin, see Correspondents.
The Soldier's Monument at the intersection of
Portland Street and Agamenticus Road in South Berwick became a
landmark upon its erection in 1900. It stands about a mile
northeast of the Jewett property, which also is on Portland
Street.

Dicky ... the Forge: Dicky is a Jewett family horse,
apparently in need of a shoe. He is mentioned in another
letter currently dated 25 August 1887.

THE LAKIES: The identities of these persons
remains unknown. Assistance is welcome.

trolley car: Trolley service between South Berwick
and Portsmouth began in 1903. Service to Ogunquit, perhaps
more valuable for seeing the countryside, began in 1907.

Ellen and Ida: Ellen Francis Mason and her sister,
Ida. See Correspondents.

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in the
Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Folder 74, Burton
Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more information about
the individual transcription, contact the Maine Women Writers
Collection. Preparation by Linda Heller. Notes by
Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Mary Rice Jewett

[Sunday Morning]
[December1903 or later ]

I cant remember that you wanted anything at Tanks* -- if you do
please speak! The Kitty just appeared tagging A.F.* up to
the library and jumping into her lap after sitting and surveying
it, while we were talking. So we had to talk on and stay
as we were! and got some things settled perhaps the kitty
thought it was best we should! being very solemn, and wise, but
so sleepy! Mrs. Fields was asking me about going down, and
I said that I haven’t got to where I could fix the day -- and
she wished you could get your things ready for express
or poor Katy* to scatter about town, and then come up here on
Saturday and stay over until Christmas morning and so have
Christmas here too as you liked it once before. Then we
could have Christmas afternoon and evening at home by ourselves
-- and I could stay all my days at home together till I go to
Mrs. Cabots.* It seems to me this would be beautiful the more I
think of it. I must get every thing to rights here and
sometimes it seems as if it would take all the time, though I have
got a good start. Mrs. Fields is going to Louisa’s* to
Christmas Day dinner (I dont know that she will but it is
promised! I think so!) I was just looking at this
letter from the Holton man* which I shall answer like the other
-- but I dont mean to get in for a correspondence. I
wonder what became of the other letter over which I
toiled. I remember thinking how little a five cent stamp
seemed to carry the letter all that way -- and I am pretty sure
that he asked for one of my books and I sent that too. I
should think he would bewilder an honest heathen if he talks at
the length he writes, poor man.

Notes

1903or later: This is a tentative
composition date, pending further information. The letter must
have been composed after Katy Galvin joins the Jewett
household in the spring of 1899. Jewett's reference to
"Kitty," a Fields pet, suggests this letter is close in time to
other letters mentioning the cat and that clearly were composed
after Jewett's 1902 carriage accident.
Transcriber's notes with this text read: [to
Mary] [Sunday Morning].

Tanks: This would appear to be a Boston retail store,
but no information about it has yet been located.

the Holton man: As yet no correspondence between Jewett
and a person named "Holton" has been located. Assistance
is welcome. She mentions a "Holton" in The Old Town of
Berwick," but this may not be relevant.

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in
the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Folder 74, Burton
Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more information about
the individual transcription, contact the Maine Women Writers
Collection. Preparation by Linda Heller. Notes by
Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to William Dean Howells

South Berwick, Maine,
Tuesday, August 11th.
[ 1903 or later ]

Dear Mr. Howells

------------------------ I wish that I could go down to see you
today but alas, I have to "keep inside our own fence" pretty
carefully, as they say to small children.

The ellipses in the transcription indicate that this is a
selection from the manuscript.

1903 or later: Almost certainly composed after
Howells bought his summer home in Kittery Point and after
Jewett's 1902 carriage accident. That Jewett feels more
than usually limited in her ability to travel points toward
1903, but still, this could be a later year.

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in the
Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Folder 72, Burton
Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more information about the
individual transcription, contact the Maine Women Writers
Collection. Preparation by Linda Heller. Notes by
Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Isabella Stewart Gardner

Saturday September 12th [ 1903 or
later ]
South Berwick, Maine

Dearest Mrs. Gardner

What a kind and dear note you have written
me. I shall never forget it! Oh, you are quite
right: there was no reason for such a foolish disaster,
and no one can make no excuses!

My sister* and I are so sorry to have been
away when you came to Hamilton House. I must give
you my story about the charming old place sometime
-- !*

Hamilton House ... my story: Gardner is likely to
have visited Hamilton House in South Berwick after the
completion of its restoration by Emily Tyson in 1900.
Though Jewett had written a passage on Hamilton House in her
sketch, "River Driftwood" (1881), it is more likely that Jewett
refers to her 1901 novel, The Tory Lover, for which
Hamilton House is a main setting.

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in the
Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Folder 72, Burton
Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more information about the
individual transcription, contact the Maine Women Writers
Collection. Preparation by Linda Heller. Notes by
Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Mary Frances Parker Parkman

[ Summer 1904 or later ]

Dearest Frances

-------------- You cant know what a dark disappointment it has
been to give up my visit to you. I have wished so to be with
you and to see the dear place -- all the pointed firs* seem like
my own cousins -- beloved cousins: all cousins are not, and
we should have felt nearer each other if we could have been
together you and I and the dear trees. I wish you had said
that you and Mrs. Wolcott liked the Way it Came story.* There is a
touch of character somewhere about it that brings S. W. back* to
me always, the elusiveness -- the self-possession perhaps it
is. Goodbye my very dear friend from your

S.
O. J.

Notes

A transcriber's note reads: [Mrs. Henry Parkman]. The line
of hyphens presumably indicate omissions from the manuscript.

1904: That Jewett mentions "The Way it Came" by Henry
James suggests an 1896 composition date, but her seeming reference
to the passing of Sarah Wyman Whitman, points toward a date after
June of 1904. I have chosen to place it tentatively in 1904.

pointed firs: Jewett's short novel, The Country
of the Pointed Firs, was published in 1896.

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in the
Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Undated Letters, Folder
75, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more
information about the individual transcription, contact the Maine
Women Writers Collection. Notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Mary Rice Jewett

Sunday night
[ Boston, Winter 1905 - March 1907 ]*

Dear Mary

---------- Lucy Lee & Stubby* were here to dinner at two and
it was very gay. The coat appeared, and after he went away I
was standing by the window up stairs and supposed he had gone down
the hill, and then saw him walking discreetly along on the Common*
like a sober young doctor, and I was thinking oh how nice he
looked! With an aunt's full pride, when suddenly he took to
his heels with all his might and ran at a good slide he
had descried in the distance! My fond heart slid with him --
he went at it tall hat and all!! and then
walked solemnly on again. I told Mrs. Cabot* who said 'I
can see him too' with such a funny delight, and we
thought that youth was not all forgotten. We should have
been together to view him, it was such a pleasing moment to an
aunt.
------------

Notes

The transcriber's lines of hyphens presumably indicate omissions
from the manuscript.

March 1907: The letter probably was composed between
June of 1905, when Theodore Jewett Eastman completed his medical
degree and March 1907, when Susan Burley Cabot died.

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in the
Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Undated Letters, Folder
75, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more
information about the individual transcription, contact the Maine
Women Writers Collection. Notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Letters that could have been composed at
almost any time in Jewett's adult life

SOJ to Miss McLaughlin*

With many thanks for your kind note --

Yours sincerely

Sarah O. Jewett

To Miss McLaughlin.

Notes

McLaughlin: This recipient has not been
identified. Stoddart observes that this is an example of
Jewett's response to her public. This note is penned on a heavy
3" by 5" card.

The manuscript of this letter is in the collection of the Miller
Library of Colby College, Waterville, ME. The transcription
first appeared in Scott Federick Stoddart's Ph.D. dissertation at
the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign: Selected Letters
of Sarah Orne Jewett, copyright by Stoddart, 1988.
Annotation is by Stoddart, supplemented where appropriate by Terry
Heller, Coe College.

Private [? double underlined]

Will the editor of the Transcript* kindly give this notice
a place among literary items? I am anxious to have the delightful
little book as widely known as possible. It seems to me really an
uncommonly successful thing ~
Sarah O. Jewett

South Berwick Maine
13 May.

Notes

Original transcriber note: [This letter], although short, gives a
glimpse into Jewett's work as a writer and an esteemed member of
literary society. While unclear the type of work that she wishes
to promote, she clearly encouraged and supported other talented
authors of her time.

Transcript: Almost certainly the Boston Evening
Transcript.

The manuscript of this letter is held in the Autograph Collection
at the Loyola University (Chicago) Archives and Special
Collections, item 1428, and may be viewed at Loyola
University
Chicago Digital Special Collections. Original
transcription by Sarah Morsheimer. Slightly revised
transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Mary Rice Jewett

Friday morning

Dear Mary

I have written to Exeter and Concord and now I am so tired that I
shall have to cut you off with a shilling.

Notes

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in the
Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Undated Letters, Folder
75, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more
information about the individual transcription, contact the Maine
Women Writers Collection. Notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Mary Rice Jewett

Saturday morning

……… After today I shall feel in great going order and try to see
people and get things done. Thank you for your letter which
I found here yesterday. With best love,

Sarah

Notes

The line of points presumably indicates an omission from the
manuscript.

A transcriber's note reads: [letter to Mary].

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in the
Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Undated Letters, Folder
75, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more
information about the individual transcription, contact the Maine
Women Writers Collection. Notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to an unknown recipient

Monday morning

I have just got your nice letter of Saturday and such a
nice one from Helen* which was a great pleasure. The
beautiful picture is terrible edifying but if I showed it to John*
I know he would say What 'dsh'dror UM* so small for?
I saw UM being cleaned this morning early. (I happened to
get up early) and the Walls dust was spoken of in
disconsolate terms but the wind seemed to be blowing Mr. Tuckers
sails from a fair quarter. I have been going through with
pleasing housekeeping affairs with Lizy* varied by
“MisSarahMist-her Clark” and “MissSarahMist-her
Ha-y-e-s”,* but all is well and I am going to do a little
writing now if so be I can find a proper pen. Your letter
sounds like a perfectly delightful time. In haste

S.O.J.

Notes

Helen: Jewett may refer to any of several
"Helens." As she is not identified as a relative, the more
likely possibilities are Helen Bigelow Merriman and Helen Choate
Bell. See Correspondents.

UM: Mr. Tucker's dialect sentence remains
untranslated, and the cleaning of the UM, therefore, also remains
mysterious. Perhaps he asks "What's this drawing room
so small for?" Assistance is welcome.

Lizy: An Irish Jewett employee. Further information
is welcome.

“MisSarahMist-her Clark” and “MissSarahMist-her Ha-y-e-s”:
Clark and Hayes both were common names in South Berwick during
Jewett's life, making it difficult to know which persons pay calls
in this letter.

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in the
Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Undated Letters, Folder
75, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more
information about the individual transcription, contact the Maine
Women Writers Collection. Notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Mary Rice Jewett

Tuesday morning

South Berwick, Maine

Dear Mary

………Mrs.
Bell and Mrs. Pratt* were so dear and we had a most charming
little dinner with them all by our selves last night but Mrs. Bell
is dreadfully changed -- so thin and like an old woman
though it seemed as if nothing could take away her youth and
gayety of heart. When I think how that young man* had the
power to spoil all their peace and life and did it just for the
excitement and wrong ambition it does seem hard, but life is meant
for discipline and not for pleasure and the best souls must get
the same lessons over and over again until they have learned them.

Notes

The line of points presumably indicates an omission from the
manuscript.

that young man: Who the young man is and how he
destroyed the women's peace is not yet known. Assistance is
welcome.

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in the
Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Undated Letters, Folder
75, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more
information about the individual transcription, contact the Maine
Women Writers Collection. Notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Mary Rice Jewett

Saturday morning
[ Winter ]

Dear Mary

There is a great screeching of snow in the street as if a timber
pine was going down to the landing!* I went to Cambridge
yesterday in spite of the cold and had a beautiful morning, though
I got very cold going through Quincy St. against the wind and
waiting by Beck for a car which seemed as if it had gone down in
sight of land.

This week has gone by like a slide down hill. I have been so
busy in every way. Ella Walworth* came and made a long call
yesterday after telephoning and I was glad to see her though with
a friend like that you seem to being [ intended begin ?
] to talk close together and then imperceptibly get farther
and farther away.

Notes

to the landing: Though Jewett writes from Boston, she
recalls the sounds of South Berwick, of logs going by sledge down
her street toward the river. See her "Looking Back on Girlhood" (1897).

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in the
Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Undated Letters, Folder
75, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more
information about the individual transcription, contact the Maine
Women Writers Collection. Notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Carrie Jewett Eastman

Monday morning

Dear Carrie

…………….…You must have known it would be so. I hope Emerson
coped with her case, and I should like to see her and Columbus on
the water. They would both sit aft to be near together and
the bow of the boat would be all out of water. I can picture
it.

Goodbye with much love from Sarah

Notes

The line of points presumably indicates an omission from the
manuscript. Emerson ... Columbus: Without more information,
identifying this Emerson is impossible. Jewett was
acquainted with Ellen Emerson, daughter of American writer Ralph Waldo Emerson, and also with Sylvia
Hathaway Watson Emerson. See Correspondents. Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) was an
Italian explorer who opened the Americas to European exploration
and colonization.

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in the
Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Undated Letters, Folder
75, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more
information about the individual transcription, contact the Maine
Women Writers Collection. Notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Mary Rice Jewett

Thursday
night

Dear Mary

…………I
don't know when I have enjoyed so much of my own company!
but there's nothing like making up one's mind and going right to
do a thing when you know it is best.

Notes

The line of points presumably indicates an omission from the
manuscript.

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in the
Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Undated Letters, Folder
75, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more
information about the individual transcription, contact the Maine
Women Writers Collection. Notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ perhaps to Mary Rice Jewett

I slept until Mary came with my breakfast after a harsh experience
of dreaming of my approaching execution and running away
(escaping) and hiding with some black people last night, but this
dream always used to seem a sign of good fortune. It hasn't
happened before for sometime and seems quite natural.

Notes

A transcriber's note with this text reads: [at end of letter to
Mary]. However, the report that Mary brought her breakfast
suggests that the letter is addressed to someone else. Of
course, she may refer to a different Mary having this recurring
dream.

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in the
Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Undated Letters, Folder
75, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more
information about the individual transcription, contact the Maine
Women Writers Collection. Notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Mary Rice Jewett

Friday evening

Dear Mary

Your
sister is going to call you Carrie Hope Goodwin.*
She wouldn’t have thought of it but for having it put into her
head. That dimity waist of mine in the entry closet -- or
some where! is a pretty waist which might be looked at --
of course it is a little past in style now but you might get a
notion. . .

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in
the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Folder 74, Burton
Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more information about
the individual transcription, contact the Maine Women Writers
Collection. Preparation by Linda Heller. Notes by
Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Mary Rice Jewett

Wednesday I haven’t much to add except a letter or
two! and the account of a beautiful dream of me and A.F.* going
to Cousin Fanny Gilman’s* to tea and finding the tea all on the
table and some bread & butter -- and we weren’t feeling able
to wait! So we sat down and poured out beautiful
cups and began! After some delay Cousin Fanny came in and
we were all a little disturbed! I hope that you
will smile at this pretty dream. I must hurry to get off a
lot of notes and then go out. So good bye with love from

Cousin Fanny Gilman’s: This cousin has not been
identified, though she is repeatedly associated in Jewett's
letters with Jewett's aunt, Mrs. Helen Williams Gilman.

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in
the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Folder 74, Burton
Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more information about
the individual transcription, contact the Maine Women Writers
Collection. Preparation by Linda Heller. Notes by
Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Mary Rice Jewett

Friday night

Dear Mary

I
catch up this mice [mite ?] of a piece of paper to tell
you that I reached here by half past seven and have had a dinner
which has kept us down stairs an unusual time. Alice
Longfellow* has been here for two days and the providence lady
who spoke last night at the meeting. Ellen Crowley was
with a very good looking niece* -- stepping to Boston & told
me that she was leaving for good! She mentioned Mrs.
Goodwin* to be “a good woman” with great feeling, and said when
I said, “Oh you’ll be coming back!” that she hadn’t had a rest
for seven years. Poor old Ellen! I should think she
might be feeling that she had been at work a good while. I
gave them some of the candy.

I shall try & write again tomorrow if I dont have to start
out too early. Didn’t we have a nice time together?

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in the
Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Folder 74, Burton
Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more information about the
individual transcription, contact the Maine Women Writers
Collection. Preparation by Linda Heller. Notes by
Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ probably to Mary Rice Jewett

[Prides Crossing]

[Wed. Night]

I am shivering on the brink of making up my mind to go to
Boston, but it has been so hot, and every day there seems to be
some excuse for staying here. I must go to 4 Park Street,*
that’s all, and it is no special haste except to get it off my
mind.

4 Park Street: 4 Park Street in Boston was the
address of the publisher Houghton, Mifflin and of Atlantic
Monthly.

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in
the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Folder 74, Burton
Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more information about
the individual transcription, contact the Maine Women Writers
Collection. Preparation by Linda Heller. Notes by
Terry Heller, Coe College.

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in
the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Folder 74, Burton
Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more information about
the individual transcription, contact the Maine Women Writers
Collection. Preparation by Linda Heller. Notes by
Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Mary Rice Jewett

[Tues. Night]

I wrote Mrs. Goodwin* today. What a pity she wasn’t there
last night! I smile like Mr. Street* himself to think of
his coming to Sister Street, but I could entertain her much
better. I shall want to speak about the visit when I see
you. As you say, it was much to be preferred to the Dover
Minister.*

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in
the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Folder 74, Burton
Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more information about
the individual transcription, contact the Maine Women Writers
Collection. Preparation by Linda Heller. Notes by
Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to an unknown recipient

Friday night

The Doctor wishes me to tell you that A. F. is better to day
(though very weak) and is doing as well as we could
expect. I have waited until this last minute so as to tell
you exactly.

Lovingly
yours

S.O.J.

Notes

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in the
Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Folder 74, Burton
Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more information about the
individual transcription, contact the Maine Women Writers
Collection. Preparation by Linda Heller. Notes by
Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to an unknown recipient

Tuesday

34
Beacon Street*

----------------------
Wait till I tell you about a piece that came on maked like a
pineapple* -- and about other things. Everybody comes now
a days and says things about my stories in a way they never did
before -- more serious and not by way of having to say
something. It racks me to think of keeping up to it -- my
last little crop was a pretty good one. -----------

Notes

The hyphens at the beginning and end indicate this is an
incomplete transcription.

maked like a pineapple: Even if one speculates
that Jewett intended "marked like a pineapple," the sentence
remains mysterious. Assistance is welcome.

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in
the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Folder 74, Burton
Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more information about
the individual transcription, contact the Maine Women Writers
Collection. Preparation by Linda Heller. Notes by
Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Mary Rice Jewett

Mrs. Cabot* sent her love to you. I desire not to forget
it. I told her about Aunt Susan Jewett's being so put out
with Mrs. Sanderson* because "she got down on her knees and
prayed for me as if I were a heathen" -- and it was
a great moment. Also about Sarah Lord's* showing no "sence
of propriety" about taking the green moreen petticoat.* I
hope you haven't forgotten those two pleasing episodes?

Aunt Susan Jewett's being so put out with Mrs. Sanderson:
Aunt Susan could be Susan Jameson Jewett (1857-1954 ), who
lived unmarried in South Berwick ME. Her parents
were Elisha Hanson Jewett (1816-1883) and Sarah
Orne Jewett (1820-1864). They were the parents of another
Sarah Orne Jewett, who died in infancy.
Mrs. Sanderson and the incident mentioned
have not been identified. She could be Alice Perkins Sanderson (1864-1919) of
Portsmouth, NH, but this speculation is based solely upon her
being a local contemporary of the right name. There were
other local women who may be this person, including Abby Joy Sanderson (1833-1888) of South
Berwick and Fannnie B. (Mrs. George) Sanderson (c.
1850- 1887) of Kittery Point, ME. Lucy F. Sanderson (1874-1945) of
Kennebunk, ME, or Mercy (Mrs. Nelson) Sanderson (1820-1905)
of Buxton, ME. Assistance is welcome.

Sarah Lord: In Sarah Orne Jewett (2002) Paula
Blanchard identifies Sarah Lord as a South Berwick neighbor (p.
45). The number of women named Sarah Lord who lived in or near
South Berwick, ME during Jewett's lifetime is intimidating.
Perhaps most likely are Sarah Noble Lord (1804-1897) or her
daughter, Sarah M. Lord (1842-1884), both of whom are buried in
South Berwick, ME. Assistance is welcome.

moreen: a heavy fabric, usually wool or cotton.
This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in the
Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Folder 72, Burton
Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more information about the
individual transcription, contact the Maine Women Writers
Collection. Preparation by Linda Heller. Notes by
Terry Heller, Coe College.

SOJ to Annie Adams Fields

Undated Fragment

and I wish I had my own dear warm little Fuff* to be close
to and gossip with and tell things to and tease and shake ladies,
because she is so dear. Fuff would say Pin* it is too dark
to write any longer.! So good night from your own P. L.

Pin: Short for Pinny Lawson, a nickname for Sarah
Orne Jewett. See Correspondents.
This text is from the Maine Women Writer's Collection,
University of New England, Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie
Fields. corr057-soj-af-06.

SOJ to unnamed friends

131 Charles St.*
Thursday morning

Dear friends

Couldn't you stop to see me
as you go by? I have been housed with a cold here since [ deleted
word ] I have been here except yesterday when I went out and
took more!

Yours affectionately
Sarah O. Jewett

[ Page 2 ]

I wish you had told me you were at Kennebunkport.

Notes

131 Charles St.: It is not yet known why Jewett wrote
from this address or to which friends she was writing.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Small Library,
University of Virginia, Special Collections MSS 6218, Sarah Orne
Jewett Papers. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.

SOJ to Edward Jarvis Bartlett

Dear Mr. Bartlett

Thank you for your very kind note which came to
me here lately. I have thought so many times what a great
pleasure it would be to go to Concord again and when I came to
Boston nearly two

[ Page 2 ]

months ago I said I should go out very soon for though I had been
ill then since Christmas I hoped to be better at once -- But the
doctors have made me keep very quiet and I am still so far from
well that any plan like the pleasant one you suggest seems utterly

[ Page 3 ]

out of the question. I appreciate being asked to read at the
Club, and I appreciate your sister's kindness and your
own. If I can I will go out to Concord before I go
home. You dont know what a delight it would be, for it seems
a long time since I was there, and I am so fond of all my friends
there,

[ Page 4 ]

and wish to see them so much.

Yours always & sincerely
Sarah O. Jewett

At Mrs. Rice's*
34 Union Park.

Notes

Club: It seems likely that Jewett has been asked to
read for the Concord Social Circle. Founded in 1782, it grew out
of the Committee of Safety of the Revolution. Bartlett and
his family were members.